KUCHING: Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) shared insights into the future development plans and opportunities in Digital Economy and Smart City in Sarawak during the Malaysia Smart Cities Alliance Association (MSCA) Retreat 202 that will further boost the state’s opportunities in becoming a developed state.
SMA general manager Dr Zaidi Razak represented the authority as one of the panelists during the event which was held at Eventscape @ Rekascape Cyberjaya on Wednesday (Feb 1).
A key concept of the Smart City operating system in Kuching Smart City Masterplan KSCMP was among the highlights shared by Zaidi.
With such a smart city initiative, government agencies, the private sector, and the community will be able to deliver their services and products using the shared smart city applications.
Zaidi noted that these will lead to an ecosystem that has better optimisation of resources and enable trusted collaboration with the private sector, resulting in sustainable accelerated growth of the Sarawak digital economy.
“As part of the state government’s policy to focus on the digital economy to propel Sarawak to achieve its developed status by 2030, innovation and development should not only depend on government investment but also on the involvement of private start-ups and individuals.
“The Sarawak Smart City ecosystem is designed to be a secure, open, and technology-agnostic platform that incorporates a wide array of robust and best-of-breed technologies and solutions for entities to build on, enabling a lower total cost of ownership and faster development and implementation.
“Consequently, this has the propensity to attract twin city partnerships and generate investment and talent inflow and retention,” he said.
Zaidi said the authority received an overwhelming response from those present who were keen to share their expertise with Sarawak and learn from SMA on Sarawak’s Smart City initiatives.
“Therefore, I urge MSCA’s strategic partners to share their value proposition to Sarawak and work together to achieve the Post-Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030 goals,” Zaidi added.
The MSCA retreat was organised for strategic partners to share their current and future development plans with over 100 attendees during the one-day session.
Among the strategic partners that attended the session were PLANMalaysia, Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Smart Selangor Delivery Unit (SSDU), Technology Depository Agency (TDA), Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation (MRANTI), Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association (MPIA), and Malaysian Industry Forward Association (MIPA).
Under the PCDS 2030, Zaidi asserted that one of the seven strategic thrusts outlined in the plan to accelerate economic growth is digitalisation through its Smart City infrastructure to ease business and make Sarawak an investment destination of choice.
Zaidi also added that Sarawak will be hosting the World Congress on Innovation and Technology (WCIT) 2023, which will be held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) from Oct 4–6.
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