Members of the contingents taking part in the parade for the Head of State’s 81st birthday celebration in Kuching listen to the speech delivered by Abang Johari, whose image is projected on a large screen behind them. — Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: Sarawak aspires to provide more direct impacts and increase the incomes of Sarawakians by expanding its economy, says Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
According to him, the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) stands at RM113.6 billion and the state government is challenged to move Sarawak’s economy to new heights.
“Our GDP per capita stood at RM46,514 and our external trade was worth RM116.3 billion in 2016. Nevertheless, the challenge for us today is how to propel the economy to greater heights, to achieve a high income and advanced economy by 2030.
“We want to ensure that as our economy expands, it will provide more direct impacts and increase the incomes of our people,” he spoke at the Head of State Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud’s 81st birthday do on the Celebration Square at Sarawak Stadium in Petra Jaya here yesterday.
Abang Johari also pointed out that Sarawak had made great strides in economic development over the years, adding that the state’s economy was able to maintain a positive economic growth at 3.2 per cent last year despite facing global uncertainties and low crude oil prices.
This year, he said the state’s export had improved along with the economic improvement in other parts of the world.
“We expect our economy to improve further between 3.5 and four per cent in 2017.”
On education, Abang Johari remarked: “The government is very much aware that all that is being planned cannot materialise if we don’t have and we don’t develop our human capacity to achieve them.”
He assured all that the steps had been taken to develop the state’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) ‘to cater to the needs of industries’.
Towards this end, he said the state government had set up TVET centres in addition to those provided by the federal government.
“Our pursuit towards digitising Sarawak’s economy needs a different kind of expertise, which is very limited or we still do not have.”
Abang Johari said because of this, he had asked Yayasan Sarawak to provide bursaries to new disciplines of studies through the Tun Taib Education Bursary towards developing the expertise in various fields through the activities of research and development (R&D) in research universities and institutions in the country and overseas.
According to the chief minister, Yayasan Sarawak now has the capacity to provide loans and scholarships including those meant for research at Masters and PhD levels.
“In fact, Yayasan Sarawak is now inviting applications for at least 23 courses by research including biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, cloud computing, data analytics, ‘Big Data’ and telemetry, software engineering, micro-biology, and human computer interaction.
“These are the new courses that the government has decided to offer scholars in order to prepare (for) the future development of Sarawak through digital economy,” he said.
He said all Sarawakians – be they residing in urban or rural areas and irrespective of race and religion – have the rights to enjoy development.
He also pledged that for as long as he is the chief minister, he would make sure that every qualified and experienced Sarawakian would stand an equal chance to prosper.