S’wak govt aware innovation culture is very important to make state competitive: Sabariah

KUCHING (Oct 12): The state government is aware that innovation culture is very important to make Sarawak competitive and inclusive in the digital era in terms of implementing integrated development initiatives towards achieving digital economy by 2030, said Deputy State Secretary (Performance and Service Delivery Transformation) Datu Dr Sabariah Putit.

She pointed out that was why the the Sarawak Economic Action Council (SEAC) was formed by the state government to facilitate its post Covid-19 exit economic strategy up to 2030, with an emphasis on digital economy and environmental sustainability.

“The state government has reviewed the development strategy under the 12th Malaysia Plan to study the Covid-19 pandemic effect.

“This study is to enable Sarawak to be resilient, adapting to the new normal and catalysing future economic growth and development,” she said in her speech at the launch of Productivity E-Day and Sarawak Public Service Innovation Week 2020 held over GoToWebinar and Facebook Live on Monday.

Representing the State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion in officiating the first-ever virtual launch of the programme, Sabariah noted that the SEAC had identified 10 sectors that would become the state government’s priority.

The 10 sectors were Big Data centre and innovation, Mining, High level productivity commercial agriculture and commodity sectors, high-value downstream manufacturing, aggressive forest replanting industry, tourism diversity, quality social services for the people, renewable energy, coordination of education and human resources, and development of basic infrastructure.

“In line with our programme today, I hope that more of such programme will be carried out at all levels throughout Sarawak to highlight the 10 sectors that have been identified,” she said.

The programme was themed “Innovation For Service Delivery Excellence”, in line with the Sarawak government’s desire to expose innovation and creativity, especially among civil servants to further improve the quality of services in Sarawak.

Sabariah voiced that productivity was an important element in moving Malaysia towards a developed economy and inclusive country as it was essential to the long-term success of an organisation.

“As a continuous step to increase productivity and competitiveness in today’s competitive and challenging environment, every organisation and company needs to continuously improve service efficiency in order to remain relevant.

“So a systematic approach is needed to produce innovative and creative thinking. Improvements are not only in introducing new products or services but also to improve existing services to be more efficient with lower costs and provide satisfaction to customers and consumers,” she said.

Also present were Sarawak Federal Secretary Datuk Mohd Shahabuddin Omar, Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) director-general Datuk Abdul Latif Abu Seman and MPC Sarawak director Sarimah Misman.