CM tells software developers to keep track of rapid use of technology

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Abang Johari (third right) launches the 11th Malaysian Software Engineering Conference (MySEC) 2018 yesterday. Also seen are Kadim (second right), Unimas Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology dean Dr Johari Abdullah (left) and others. — Photos by Muhammad Rais Sanusi

KUCHING: Software developers have to be aware and keep track of the rapid use of technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) in Sarawak’s various industries.

Furthermore, software must be current and tailored to meet the needs of the industries in the state to spur the Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy 2018-2022, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said.

Ever since taking office as the chief minister, Abang Johari said among the first steps he took was to transform the state’s economy towards digital economy.

“The reason is that we are living in a small population, but we have all the resources which we can connect to the (global) market,” said Abang Johari at the launch of the 11th Malaysian Software Engineering Conference (MySEC) 2018 held at a leading hotel here yesterday.

Among the anchor sectors of the Sarawak Digital Economy are: Agriculture, Manufacturing-Industry 4.0, Tourism, Smart City, Digital Health, e-Commerce and Digital Government.

Abang Johari (right) shows a book co-authored by Dr Jaap Gordijn (third right) from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Also seen are Kadim (second right) and others.

With IoT, the state’s agriculture sector, he said, can be managed and connected to the global market while the service and tourism sector can bring their promotional drive to another level.

“To promote tourism by using devices such as augmented reality, it will create anxiety or curiosity and attract tourists to come over and explore what Sarawak has to offer,” he added.

Other agencies or departments that are now shifting towards the usage of technology he elaborated, is the Sarawak Forestry Department which is now using drones to monitor illegal logging activities as well as the Sarawak Land and Survey Department which has set up its Land and Survey Information System (Lasis) for the public to obtain information on a specific piece of land.

“I have also requested Sarawak Energy to conduct studies on the usage of hydrogen technology, making it appropriate (now) to develop a software to aid the process on how to separate the hydrogen and oxygen from the water molecule,” added Abang Johari.

On another note, he said the Sarawak government had set up the Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) to ensure the continuous development of the state’s digital economy.

He also said the Sarawak government had allocated RM1 billion to upgrade infrastructure and internet speed, particularly in the rural areas of Sarawak, up to between 100Mbs and 150Mbs to support the marketing strategies of those in the rural areas.

“In this era of technology, our marketing strategy must be based on community marketing. That is the way we should market nowadays,” said Abang Johari, citing social media platforms such as Facebook as a way to connect to billions of people around the world.

He added that conventional marketing strategies are now more or less irrelevant due to the IoT and the state’s ‘Big Data’ should be the basis for any future research and development.

The conference was jointly organised by the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Unimas and the Malaysian Software Engineering Interest Group (MySEIG). It is held from Aug 7 to 9 (today) with the theme ‘Transforming Society Through Sustainable Digital Economy’.

Also speaking was Unimas vice-chancellor Datuk Dr Kadim Suaidi, who said as part of the Unimas Digital Economy initiative, the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Unimas and The Value Engineers (TVE) from the Netherlands had jointly embarked on sustainable business models for any new technology under the Sarawak Digital Economy initiatives.

“From this collaboration, the TVE company will work with Unimas to address discrepancies between technical issues of software development and the necessity to address consumer demand and build sustainable business modes for software companies and government digital economy projects,” he elaborated.

In order to stay relevant to the needs of the industry, he disclosed that Unimas was actively collaborating with several industry partners such as Sarawak Information Systems (Sains) and Sacofa to ensure that the curriculum offered at the university will be progressively aligned with the needs of the industry.

More than 100 technical papers on topics such as Software Process and Measurement, Software Approach, Application for Priority Sectors and Software Tools and Environment are being deliberated at the conference.