Abang Johari (third right) presenting the Productivity Champion Certificate to Abang Abdul Karim, witnessed by (from left) Tengku Azmi, Abdul Rahim, Azman and Sabariah. — Photos by Muhammad Rais Sanusi

KUCHING: The state must take the initiative to come up with a strategic plan to improve its industrial level towards the fourth industrial revolution otherwise known as Industry 4.0, said Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg.

According to him, Sarawak has yet to fully achieve the second industrial revolution (Industry 2.0) which revolves around mechanisation.

“We are not even in Industry 2.0 as not all our sectors are fully mechanised. That is why I have come up with various initiatives (Development Bank of Sarawak, Petros, digital economy, etc.) to create an awareness among people on the plans undertaken by the state government since I took over as the chief minister,” he told a press conference after officiating at the Business Excellence Seminar & Forum 2017 at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here yesterday.

He acknowledged that there were those who had queried his intentions of leapfrogging to Industry 4.0, skipping Industry 3.0 which leveraged electrical mechanisation with the power of computers.

“Whether we can do it or not, that is why we need to have a strategic plan for us to leapfrog to Industry 4.0 and the key to this is good connectivity and good IT infrastructure.

“All these initiatives that I have taken is to stimulate our economic growth and at the same time to stimulate the young talents. We have a lot of talented Sarawakians overseas and hope to bring them back so their talent can be applied within the Industry 4.0 ecosystem,” he explained.

Earlier in his speech, Abang Johari touched on several of his initiatives including the Digital Village in Samajaya which the state government has allocated RM20 million for its development.

“We are going to set up our digital satellite incubator that will be connected to our Digital Village and the Internet speed there will be at least 150Mb for each incubator.”

On the forum organised by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) and Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Abang Johari said it provided a platform for experts from a multitude of organisations to share their insights and experiences on their journey towards business excellence.

“I appreciate that this forum is one of the strategies used by MPC to facilitate dialogue and knowledge sharing on business excellence in order to augment productivity growth both at state and national levels.”

Also present during the ceremony were Deputy State Secretary Datu Dr Sabariah Putit, MPC chairman Tan Sri Azman Hashim, MPC board of director member Datuk Abang Abdul Karim Tun Openg, MPC deputy director general Abdul Rahim Yusoff and MPC Sarawak Region director Tengku Azmi Tengku Majid.