Participants at the first Randau workshop.
LIMBANG: The first in a series of Randau Digital Sarawak workshops themed ‘Towards A Digital Community’ was held on Wednesday here to ensure digital inclusivity across the state.
A press release recently said such workshops are part of the Sarawak government’s efforts to prepare and equip the communities in Sarawak so that they can actively take part in the new digital economy,
About 100 participants comprising community leaders, Village Development and Security Committees (JKKKs) members from Limbang Division attended the workshop organised by Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) in collaboration with Angkatan Zaman Mansang (Azam) Sarawak.
The workshop aimed to familiarise and educate grassroots leaders on development strategies and trends expected under the digital economy agenda as well as equipping them with the relevant knowledge and networking, the statement added.
It is also hoped that the participants would be able to mobilise their respective communities to initiate activities that promote and nurture digital economy, it said.
Batu Danau assemblyman Paulus Palu Gumbang was the guest-of-honour at the Randau session on ‘The role of leaders in moving the grassroots towards digital economy’ where participants discussed the future of digital economy in Limbang division.
“There are many opportunities under digital economy for us to explore, especially in terms of agriculture in Limbang where we lack manpower,” he said, adding that it was difficult to find workers in Limbang, citing cases where farmers or smallholders had been struggling to maintain their farms and collect their produce due to this shortage.
“There are some initiatives where automated irrigation systems have been applied to solve these problems,” he said, adding that this kind of automated farming and fertigation could be applied to other crops such as chillies.
He also urged participants to also take advantage of the free trading platforms like MyBazar or the social media to sell their produce to a wider market.
The workshop kicked off with seminars conducted by experts and government representatives from Unimas Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology dean Dr Johari Abdullah and Sarawak Administrative Officer (SAO) from Kuching District Office Suraijah Zainol.
Apart from these, sharing sessions by successful industry players like apparel and accessories entrepreneur Neng Kho Razali and agro-based entrepreneur Reman Apon were also held.
The break-out sessions in the afternoon covered four key areas: capacity-building, e-tourism, digital entrepreneurship and agriculture and agro-based ventures.
These sessions were conducted by representatives from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports, Department of Agriculture, Limbang Resident Office, Kuching District Office, Azam and local industry players. The next workshop will be held in Nov for Miri Division.