The Sarawak government aims to develop Kuching as a smart city by 2030, bridging the development gap between the urban and rural areas in its quest to promote the digital economy.

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg stressed on the importance of connectivity and maintaining a balance in terms of development between the urban and rural areas when closing the International Digital Economy Conference here today.

“We want to maintain Kuching as a safe city by the year 2030. Therefore, there must be proper planning when building a city,” he said.

Abang Johari said it was also important to provide the right input to enhance agricultural production in rural areas and increase the people’s income.

Having said that, Abang Johari said he was confident Sarawak is capable of driving its economic development through its production of intellectual human capital in the future as 60% of its population is below the age of 55.

“We are also blessed with our natural resources and biodiversity. We just have to analyse our data based on our biodiversity resources.

“That’s why Sarawak has adopted digital economy as a vehicle in moving forward up till 2030.”

He said the future of Sarawakians and Malaysians must be on a par with the rest of the world and cannot be isolated.

“This will take time but we must start somewhere,” he added.