Coding Sarawak’s own digital economy

LESS than three decades ago, going digital for most businesses meant merely investing in one or two expensive computers for a select few employees to enter data into. Documents and data were still mostly recorded physically until it came time for data entry clerks to archive them onto the now obsolete floppy disk.

Back then, it was not necessary for the majority to be computer literate to work. Documents were created by a typewriter, inventory calculated by hand, and communication was done through analogue phones.

Fast forward to the present and you’d be hard pressed to find a single white collar job that does not involve some form of digital technology.

Nowadays, most working Malaysians are required to have Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills and knowledge.

Even coffee shop attendants are well versed in using tablets to place drink orders!

According to the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (Mdec), a digital economy is powered by internet and digital technologies and allows anyone to participate from anywhere.

In a digital economy, businesses and individuals are creating, innovating and growing new business opportunities faster than ever before.

There’s no denying that this is exactly what is happening right now as our business activities and commercial trade are now more globalised than ever before. We buying and selling products on a global scale and new businesses involved in technology are launching daily.

In just a few decades, the landscape of how we do business and conduct our lives has changed drastically but technology has also advanced exponentially in the past few years.

Thus bears the question: where exactly do we stand when compared to the rest of the world?

According to an Internet Users Survey 2016 by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), 77.6 per cent of fellow Malaysians are internet users. In Sarawak, the figure is slightly higher at 77.9 per cent.

In contrast, data from the International Communication Union (ITU) showcased that in 2016, 81 per cent of the population in developed nations were internet users while the figure was 41.6 per cent in the Asia and Pacific region.

Just these figures alone showed that our adoption of internet use and in turn technology seems to be in line with the rest of the developed world.

Nevertheless, based on the research done by the MCMC, it is apparent that we are nearly not as responsive to utilising digital technology for commercial purposes.

Only 36.2 and 35.3 per cent of our nation’s internet users were found to have actively used the internet for banking services and shopping, respectively.

While these reported figures from the MCMC are national figures, newly-minted Minister of International Trade and eCommerce (MITeC) and Second Minister of Finance Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh affirms the situation in Sarawak to be of no exception to this scenario and even alludes to the fact that perhaps we might even be worse off.

“In Sarawak, we are quite far behind. At the moment we are handling goods and services in the traditional way. We have not made greater use of the digital devices and it is about time we upgrade ourselves to a higher level so that it will be fast and easy to buy and sell products and services,” he said to BizHive Weekly in an interview.

In contrast, the European Commission reported that in 2016, nearly 60 and 75 per cent of European internet users would actively engage in financial and commerce activities online.

That’s nearly double our national rates! And with predictions from research firms such as Ovum TMT predicting that the global digital economy will hit over US$4.8 trillion worth in global opportunity by 2025, why are we still hesitating to jump head first into this exponentially growing economy?

The answer to that question is rather complex one as there are a multitude of factors that are inhibiting our march into a digital economy, but a generally accepted answer to that is: fear.