Uggah (seated centre), flanked by Ahmad (seated left) and Razali, posing for the cameras with other event organising committee members. Uggah (centre) receiving a memento from Ahmad while other event organising committee members including Razali (third right) look on. KUCHING: The state government will soon be forming the Research Development Council to oversee the activities of research and development in the state. Bodies such as Sarawak Biodiversity Centre and local universities will be working closely with the new council tasked with ensuring that researches are well coordinated and the outcomes put to good use, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg. Besides that, the state government always welcomes new ideas from the public ...

  Datuk Anthony Nogeh KUCHING: Efforts are being made to produce sufficient MD2 pineapple suckers to be planted in Sarawak. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Datuk Anthony Nogeh said some 100,000 MD2 pineapple suckers are expected to arrive here from Johor next year for trial and propagation. Nogeh, who is Mas Gading MP, said currently, about 700,000 MD2 pineapple seedlings produced by culturing plant tissue are being nurtured at Kampung Pijuru, Bau. He said the seedlings were sent and managed by the Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (MPIB). “The seedlings will be left there to bear fruit and produce suckers. “The suckers then would be distributed to the farmers, especially the planters in Mas Gading,” he said ...

  Abang Johari delivers his speech at the celebration. KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg yesterday lamented the delay by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in taking action to enhance Internet connectivity in Sarawak. “Sorry to say that MCMC is always late in taking action. So we have to allocate RM1 billion to upgrade our facilities,” he said at the launch of 1Malaysia People’s Cable System (Sistem Kabel Rakyat 1Malaysia – SKR1M) at a leading hotel here. At a post-launch press conference, Abang Johari repeated a similar comment by pointing out that the state government had to initiate the step in order to get the rest on board. “MCMC is always late, so we have to start and ...

  Lee (front row, sixth left) and Abdul Wahab (front row, fifth left) giving the thumbs up as they pose for a group photo with guests from China at the recent business session in Shenzhen. KUCHING: Twenty selected travel agents from Guangzhou and Shenzhen, China will be in the city to do tourism product inspection from December 28 to January 1 as part of a promotion initiative for AirAsia’s direct Kuching-Shenzhen flight. The five-day familiarisation trip will enable the Chinese agents to see and check for themselves the various Sarawak tourism products and also the various hotel properties while at the same time they will be given opportunities to do networking sessions with local travel partners. These top China agents are selected from a list of more than ...

  Abang Johari stresses a point at the news conference. — Photo by Chimon Upon KUCHING: Sarawak looks forward to enjoying a communication backbone with capacity of five to six terabit per second (Tbps). Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said it would be good for the state if it has higher Internet transmission speed as it transforms its economy from conventional to digital. He added that a capacity of over five Tbps would be sufficient to meet the rising demand for digitisation. “My target is five to six Tbps for the backbone so that it (Internet traffic) is not congested,” he said at a news conference following the launch of Sistem Kabel Rakyat 1Malaysia (SKR1M) submarine cable system, or 1Malaysia People’s Cable ...

  An official explains to Abang Johari (third left) how the gadget works. From right are Mazlan and Sulaiman. — Photo by Chimon Upon KUCHING: 1Malaysia People’s Cable System (SKR1M), a submarine cable system that was launched yesterday, has three landing points in the state. The landing points in Sarawak are Kuching, Bintulu and Miri.These points along with three other points in Kuantan and Mersing in Peninsular Malaysia as well as Kota Kinabalu in Sabah make up the new submarine cable system. SKR1M is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project between Telekom Malaysia (TM) and the government through Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). This project, which was completed ahead of schedule, was launched by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi ...

e this Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) Click to print (Opens in new window)   Children participate in the ‘Book Hunting’ session at Bunan Gega village library. KUCHING: The recent ‘Juh Neroka Ilmu’ programme held at Bunan Gega village, Serian received overwhelming response. Organised by Pustaka Negeri Sarawak, this inaugural ICT and information literacy programme attracted 90 people from the community – from children, teenagers to adults and senior citizens. A variety of interesting activities were held during ...

  Willian (third left) presents one of the children with schooling items. Looking on from left are Chief Minister’s Department Employees Support Division head Riziandy Nawawi and KSP chairman Mohamad Jamal Sahari. KUCHING: Eighty-six children of employees of the Chief Minister’s Department received schooling assistance during a simple ceremony held at the State Operations Room of Wisma Bapa Malaysia here yesterday. The items were presented by the department’s Human Resources Unit director, Datu William Patrick Nyigor, in connection with the ‘Back to School 2018’ programme run by the Chief Minister’s Department Employees Support Service (KSP) in collaboration with Chief Minister’s Department Staff Club. It was one of ...

Abdul Karim (second right) with SHS executive committee members, including president Robert Jacob (second left). KUCHING: Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah believes that the state’s policy, legislative and regulatory framework on heritage assets and the Heritage Ordinance need to be revisited. “This is to ensure that heritage management is consistent and coordinated with a clear partition of scope, not overlapping with that of the Sarawak Museum’s,” he said. Acknowledging the delicate tension between heritage conservation and development, Abdul Karim believed that a pragmatic balance between economic development and conservation could be achieved when a proper heritage management framework is in place. He ...

Abang Johari (centre) presenting the PBB Satok TDM kit to Ibrahim Baki while PBB Satok branch treasurer Alhadi Ibrahim (right) looks on. KUCHING: The state’s economic growth is expected to increase from its current average of four per cent to six per cent by 2030. Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg believes that increased public expenditure caused by infrastructure development that includes roads, bridges, the development of the state’s first LRT as well as the service sector will propel the state’s economic growth to six per cent in the next 12 years. He cited the state’s water resources as among the factors that would contribute to the state’s economic growth. “We want to redevelop our water channels from our dams ...