‘Good infrastructure, human capital key to Sarawak attaining high-income status by 2030’
KUCHING: It is essential for the state to create a sustainable ecosystem that acquires quality human capital and good infrastructure, in tandem with its effort to become a high-income and developed economy by 2030.
According to Genovasi Malaysia Sdn Bhd revenue management director Azman Ismail, this is needed to speed up the development in the state, which is a bit behind Peninsular Malaysia at present.
“It is a two-pronged approach – you need to have good infrastructure, and you also need people ( human capital) who are capable of sustaining, maintaining and evolving the infrastructure to greater heights.
“Hence, creating a sustainable ecosystem by investing solely on infrastructure will result in you having nice infrastructures but it won’t be generating any meaningful outcome to the people,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
As such, Azman said as part of addressing this, a different technique would be needed to create a solution in building quality human capital, especially in the civil service.
“This is where ‘Design Thinking’ ( DT) comes in.
“In the past, people used to champion things on their own; DT offers the means to say ‘you know what we need to work together’. We need to first of all get the people to ‘dream’ and then base their dreams on the real needs of the people, discover these needs and work towards a win-win solution,” he said.
Azman then highlighted Singapore, which has a design council that works across ministries towards ‘creating something better by working in a syncretistic and holistic manner.
“We believe that an innovative mindset can be taught to anyone, regardless of age and the stage in their careers,” he said.
On another subject, Azman encouraged those in the state civil service to take part in the government- sponsored ‘ Innovation Ambassador Development Programme ( IADP)’ whenever there was the opportunity to do so.
According to him, the IADP focuses on the design process that gives strong foundation in DT. Many developed countries, over the recent years, have been incorporating DT in their delivery system for the public service.
“We ( Genovasi) want Sarawakians, especially those from the state civil service, to grab this opportunity so that they can also enjoy this governmentsponsored programme,” said Azman, adding that of the 450 seats slated for IADP next year, only 60 are left available for now.
Genovasi, being the only DT school in Asean, is touted as the leader in DT and innovation methodologies in the region.
Launched on Aug 1, 2012, it is also the leading regional partner for the Hasson Plattner Institute ( HPI) School of Design Thinking at Potsam University, Germany.