Wong (centre) hands over the document of office to Chew, witnessed by Tiong.

SIBU: Sarawak’s economy will one day be knowledge-based in which information and knowledge rather than material resources drive economic activities, said Second Finance Minister and Minister of International Trade and E-Commerce Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh.

“Knowledge and information transcend all boundaries,” he said, adding that in time to come, it will no longer be individual countries which are ‘knowledge economies’.

“The whole world is one big ‘knowledge economy’ with countries linked to one another via the fast-growing Internet. We in Sarawak will have no other choice but to join and be part of the network. The nations that can ride the fast-growing, first-moving information technology are the ones that will succeed and will do better than the others,” he said when addressing attendees at the Sarawak E-Commerce Association (SEA)’s first committee installation ceremony at a leading hotel here on Sunday night.

Chew Heo Lee took his oath of office as SEA’s first president before Wong and Sibu Municipal Council chairman Datuk Tiong Thai King, who is also Dudong assemblyman. Wong said everyone, particularly the younger generation, would need to be prepared for this ride and for the challenges and opportunities ahead.

“It may be difficult for some, exhilarating for others but necessary for all,” he pointed out.

He said the state government under Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg has taken a far-sighted step in Sarawak’s economic transformation by charting and embarking towards the digital economy as a new economic thrust for the state.

“It is indeed a wise decision for the state to embrace an IT-based economy to stay relevant and to compete with other countries.

“We would like to call upon all government departments and agencies, and business players and entrepreneurs, particularly the younger technocrats, to support the bold move and aspiration of our Chief Minister. The government recognises that inadequate mobile broadband and phone coverage still remain a significant issue, particularly in suburban and rural areas.

“Therefore, our Chief Minister has committed RM1 billion for investment in digital economy initiatives to improve the telecommunication infrastructure to address these shortcomings,” he pointed out.

Wong hoped that in time to come, Sarawak could have easier and speedier access to a digital network to fully exploit the opportunities of e-commerce.

E-commerce, he said, is a business that takes place electronically, generally over the Internet. There could be three types of e-commerce – business to business (B2B) which involves businesses that sell products or services to other businesses; business to consumer (B2C) which involves businesses that sells products and services to end-users/consumers; and consumer to consumer (C2C) where consumers interact and perform transactions with each other.

Wong remarked entrepreneurs needed to come to grips with not only familiarising themselves with e-commerce jargon but also the appropriate e-commerce tools to use for a specific product or business. According to him, with little guidance, 80 per cent of e-commerce entrepreneurs either give up or limit themselves to domestic market.

Elaborating on e-commerce, he said it is a tool that provides a fast and easy way to buy and sell products and services, enables buying and selling to take place 24/7 anywhere in the world, involves lower operational cost, and provides more variety to promote competition, resulting in better products and services. On the other hand, Wong cautioned, there are also disadvantages to the promotion of e-commerce.

“Anyone, good or bad, can start a business in e-commerce. Online fraud can frequently occur and there is no absolute guarantee of product quality. It can be difficult to control point of failures in the process chain from transactions and payments to delivery of products,” he said.

In this light, Wong said the role of his ministry is to plan and develop capacity building for local entrepreneurs to be ready for e-commerce by taking their business from brick-and-mortar to the borderless digital market.

He said his ministry will establish global networking and collaborations with selected organisations to strengthen local e-commerce, and establish e-commerce innovation centres for prospective companies and entrepreneurs to fast-track their readiness for international trade and e-commerce.

“We must also craft and develop key strategies and institute regulatory frameworks along with policy guidelines to prepare ourselves to be an e-commerce centre to promote, educate and develop human capital or entrepreneurs to venture into e-commerce. We will therefore organise a series of seminar and dialogue sessions with various business organisations, chambers of commerce and with the prospective traders and entrepreneurs, particularly the younger ones, to get feedback, educate, disseminate and suggest the ways forward.

“We would therefore like to call upon all of you to engage yourselves fully in our endeavour to promote e-commerce and in the process, to bring maximum benefits to the state of Sarawak and its people,” Wong added.