SARAWAK has rolled out its 10-year post-Covid-19 economic recovery plan that anchors on digitalising its economy and maintaining environmental sustainability.

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg also announced the formation of an economic action council to gather feedback of the state’s economic stakeholders – the various chambers of commerce, professionals and academics.

Abang Johari, who will chair the Sarawak Economic Action Council, said it is pertinent for the state to get the stakeholders’ views on the exit development agenda.

He said the direction to shift businesses online is due to the impact brought by the Covid-19 pandemic that had resulted in the creation and emergence of the “new norms” globally.

“We will not be able to do business as usual any more. This is the scenario that we have never experienced before and will require us to exercise new ways of doing things, now and in the future,” he said today at the state secretariat in Petrajaya.

Abang Johari said the state is also reviewing its development strategies under the 12th Malaysia plan to keep its Covid-19-battered economy resilient.

The 5-year plan starts next year and ends in 2025.

To intensify its digital economy agenda, the chief minister said, the state’s Data Centre will play a pivotal role in driving innovation in the digital application sphere.

“We will increase the capacity of our Data Centre to cater for the ever-increasing demands across all economic sectors domestically as well as global needs.

“The enhanced capacity will be further supported by the ever growing need of digital services such as digital ID, digital wallet, big data, Blockchain, Fintech, virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence.”

He said the state’s Data Centre will be environmentally sustainable as it consumes renewable energy.

“To enhance our economic productivity and competitiveness, we will intensify our digital economy agenda across all sectors of Sarawak’s economy.

“Sustainable environment will feature prominently in our future development plan. We will ensure that Sarawak achieves a clean, healthy, and resilient environment for the current and future generation.”

Abang Johari said the state government will continue to place emphasis on the mining sector.

“We have abundant minerals and natural resources such as oil, gas, coal, silica sands, limestones and others as new sources of revenue.

“Our mining sector, particularly the oil and gas sector, will utilise our Data Centre to enhance its resources planning and deployment in place of conventional methods.”

The agriculture sector will also see an evolution by leveraging on the latest technology and artificial intelligence to intensify and improve productivity, he said.

He said in agriculture, the focus will be on commercialisation and modernisation.

“Increasing productivity in the agriculture and commodity sector is key to this effort. New innovations, especially precision farming with the application of the internet of things (IoT) as well as latest research and development applications will be intensified.”

In other sectors, Abang Johari said the manufacturing sector will be transformed “for more value-added and downstream processing activities especially in high-tech, heavy industries, resource based and non-resource based downstream industries.

One sector Abang Johari said needed “a great effort” to dig it out of the economic doldrums is the tourism industry.

He said since it will take a longer time to jump start the industry, a lot of effort will be initiated to build up tourists’ confidence and airlines to resume their operation.

He said while efforts will be intensified to develop the sector through product developments, the sector would also have to be diversified into other tourism products beyond leisure tourism.

He named them as medical tourism, sports, education and “other home-grown events”.

“Sarawak’s natural endowments such as resorts, caves, natural lakes, national parks, rivers and mountains will be given added emphasis for tourism activities.” – May 6, 2020.