Abang Johari (centre) makes his way to the multi-purpose hall. — Photo by Chimon Upon
SANTUBONG: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg has called upon Sarawakians to embrace technology in line with the Sarawak government’s drive towards digital economy by 2022.
He said Sarawak had no other option but to ‘embrace technology in all spheres of economic development’ in order to move forward.
“To embrace technology, we need people who are knowledgeable in technology and use technology to add value to products and services that we offer to our clients. For our economy to be integrated with the regional and world economy, we need fibre optic and clouding to develop our digital economy,” he said when launching the Technical, Digital and Heritage Integrated Complex of the Centre of Technical Excellence Sarawak (Centexs) here Friday.
Minister of Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian was among those present.
Abang Johari was delighted to note that Centexs is in collaboration with Huawei Malaysia for the supply of equipment and services.
He said Sarawak would have to address a few challenges in its mission to develop and advance digital economy.
“We need to upgrade our infrastructure to have network coverage in the whole of Sarawak. Which is why we formed Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA), empowered to upgrade our infrastructure, increase the speed of our internet and connectivity.”
He said technology could be utilised to transform not just economic activities but also the healthcare and tourism sectors.
According to him, technology had been adopted by the healthcare industry in terms of detection of illnesses, such as x-ray and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).
For the tourism sector, Abang Johari said industry players must use technology as their marketing tool to promote their tourism products.
“Even the banking industry has transformed to e-wallet or mobile banking today. Given all these, we have to train our people.”
He believed that Centexs would continue to play its role to produce the resources required by Sarawak to achieve its digital economy status.
Earlier, Centexs chairman and State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani said the centre started off as Pusat Latihan Belia in 1973.
“From its original objective of training in technical field, it has now broadened its spectrum of training to digital fields to answer the digital needs of Sarawak economy,” he said.
He said Centexs had upgraded its syllabus in technical training by acquiring Welding Augmented Reality Lab for Training (Walt) through collaboration with a UK-based certification company – TWI Services last year.
This had enabled the graduates to have access to global markets, he noted.
“Walt prepares the students with simulation training before going to real welding, thus preparing them for better proficiency in training,” he said.
Morshidi said Centexs inked a Contract of Supply and Services with Huawei Malaysia last year for the supply of equipment and services.
He said 12 trainers were sent to Shenzhen, China to undergo digital training under the collaboration.
“Now Centexs offers programmes in the technology domain including wireless module, microwave module, FTTX OSP module, data centre module, telecom energy module and mobile application development training.
“Huawei Malaysia also renovated and completed two digital labs and i-learning cloud platform. With this, Centexs will be the first Huawei skill training centre in Southeast Asia,” he added.
He believed that such collaboration would promote Sarawak’s economic growth.
Morshidi said Since July last year, 133 graduates had been certified as Huawei-certified specialists and certified Android application developers.