Construction Of Digital Village In Sama Jaya Begins This Month

KUCHING (Sarawak, Malaysia) Jan 7 (Bernama) – Construction of the Digital Village (DV) at Sama Jaya High Tech Park Kuching is set to begin this month. Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment, Len Talif Salleh, said that Tabung Ekonomi Gagasan Anak Bumiputera Sarawak (TEGAS) and Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) are working to ensure the project is completed before the stipulated period from Monday. “Construction of the DV is expected to be completed within a period of 18 months,” he said in a statement here Monday. According to the statement, under the Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy 2018-2025 (Digital Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Action 38), the DV is established to facilitate technology transfer and commercialisation and accelerate the maturity of startups through a global accelerator partnership. “Initiatives at DV will include "Launch Sarawak" (Action 39) – a programme to provide a transformative pathway to support innovation, intellectual property creation and spin-offs, as well as Scale-up programmes and Open Lab. “The Sarawak Government through the SMA will also set up "Digital Landing Pads" (Action 40) overseas to promote Sarawak as a destination for high-tech innovation and entrepreneurship like Silicon Valley or Shanghai, also to encourage both domestic and foreign investments,” it said. Meanwhile, SMA general manager Dr Zaidi Razak said, together with all the partners within the digital ecosystem, he was confident that this initiative would create success stories that would be the pride of the state and nation. “The DV will play a significant role in establishing and developing localised knowledge in Sarawak, and put Sarawakian technopreneurs and startups on the world map,” he said. TEGAS is also collaborating with SMA to run the SMA-TEGAS Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) in Kuching, Miri and Bintulu, serving as an inclusive avenue to nurture talents, support entrepreneurs and create innovators for Sarawak. -- BERNAMA