By News Desk from New Sarawak Tribune on February 12, 2020
KUCHING: Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju) yesterday visited and attended a sharing session of D-Virtual Park, the first virtual park with hologram in Malaysia by Serba Dinamik Holdings Berhad in Kota Samarahan near here.
D-Virtual Park is also the first in Malaysia to have a digital-concept incubator for business start-ups.
Teraju’s visiting delegation was led by its chief executive officer Md Silmi Abd Rahman. Present to welcome them were Serba Dinamik Holdings Berhad director Datuk Abdul Kadier Sahib and Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) deputy chief scientist Prof Dr Al-Khalid Othman.
D-Virtual Park is a joint-effort between Serba Dinamik Holdings Berhad and business start-up hub Startup Borneo. The project is poised to not only create but provide wider access for business start-ups in the digital technology segment that would give greater impetus for youth economy in Sarawak, Teraju said in a statement from Selangor.
For a start, Di-Virtual Park would be beneficial to the students, currently pursuing their studies at institutions of higher learning located nearby such as UiTM Sarawak Campus Samarahan, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and Swinburne Sarawak, which have a total student population of more than 20,000.
In fact, D-Virtual Park has the potential to be further developed and expanded to motivate the undergraduates to be entrepreneurs while learning using the platform.
According to Md Silmi, the idea behind the D-Virtual Park was in line with the government’s commitment to steer the economic growth through digital transformation and make Malaysia as industrial hub 4.0 in the Southeast Asian region.
Towards the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0), Teraju is working towards creating opportunities in the high technology and value-added sector that can give greater to smart digital technology, aerospace, trend and technology such as Internet of Things (IoT), robotic, virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI).
To empower and provide opportunity to the youth to participate in the digital economy, Teraju had also created Bumiputera Entreperneur Startup Scheme (Superb) in 2014, aimed at identifying young bumiputera business start-ups that possess either competitive ideas or innovative products.
For 2019 Superb, Md Silmi said six themes namely, digital; IR4.0; industrial enterprises and economic partnership; creative; arts and health industries; food innovation and; agriculture and agriculture-based businesses were selected.
Twenty-six winners will receive business grant of up to RM500,000 to further develop their business modules.
Under the Bumiputera Entrepreneur Development Fund (DPUB) programme, he said Teraju had set aside funds for community-based projects for the B40 categories. The innovation-based projects were implemented in collaboration with the universities and local government agencies in the state, aimed at improving the community’s income in line with the Sharing Prosperity Vision 2030 (WKB2030).
The group also visited the site of Hotel Serapi development project which was carried out under Teraju Facilitation Fund.
The hotel, which is located between Jalan Kulas and Jalan Haji Taha, when completed, will have 49 rooms and provide employment to 13 local bumiputera.
The hotel will also serve as a marketing centre for locally-made products produced by micro entrepreneurs in the nearby areas.
