Assemblyman Commends CM's Vision To Emulate Estonia's E-Government Success
KUCHING, Nov 13 (Bernama) -- A Barisan Nasional (BN) assemblyman has commended the Sarawak chief minister's vision to emulate the success story of Estonia's e-government initiative.
He said it was a brilliant idea to enable Sarawak to leap-frog towards the digital revolution and technology advancement.
According to Bukit Goram assemblyman Jefferson Jamit Unyat, the world economic dynamism revolved around Information Communication Technology.
"Therefore, by emphasising the need for Sarawak to be on par with other developed economies of the world such as the United States, Japan, Europe and China, the chief minister is very wise, visionary and practical.
"Being competent in digital economy will surely prosper the state and the people in the future," he said when debating on the Supply Bill 2018 at the State Legislative Assembly meeting here today.
Jamit said the State Budget 2018 reflected the commitment of the chief minister and state government to give greater focus on the implementation of programmes and projects in rural areas and accelerate rural development transformation to achieve greater and more balanced development.
He opined that the State Budget 2018 supported the state's vision to maximise the potential of digital technology and digitalisation to bring Sarawak to the global digital playing field whereby, the state government was committed to allocate RM1 billion for digital infrastructure and programme under the Sarawak Digital Economy initiatives to realise the dream of the chief minister that Sarawak would one day be known as 'S-Sarawak' (Smart Sarawak).
Jamit also welcomed the state government's continuous efforts to assist smallholders and farmers in rural areas with an allocation of RM223 million for the implementation of the various projects under the 2018 Budget.
He also highlighted the issue of dilapidated schools in the state and welcomed the federal government allocation of RM1 billion for the upgrading, refurbishing and repair works of dilapidated schools in the state, including in his constituency.
Earlier during the question-and-answer session, Minister for Infrastructure Development and Transportation Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing in replying to Chiew Chiu Sing (DAP- Tanjong Batu) said the progress of the overall project of the Pan Borneo Highway was satisfactory and the overall completion would be on June 30, 2021, based on the Project Delivery Partner Agreement.
He said the respective completion dates and the actual works were done as at Sept 25, this year, adding that thus far, there were slight delays in two packages, namely the package from Serian to Pantu Junction was 2.25 per cent behind schedule due to limited resources of manpower and machineries.
The Batang Skrang-Sungai Awik package is 0.5 per cent behind schedule due to minor delays in the progress on piling for bridge works.
With regard to the Nyabau to Bakun Junction, Masing said the original completion date was on Oct 29, 2017 but was revised to Aug 20, next year.
-- BERNAMA
