Bridging the urban-rural divide: SAINS goes the extra mile
“BUSINESSES cannot be successful when the society around them fails,” said a speaker during the Responsible Business Summit held in London.
For many businesses today, corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a more pivotal role in a corporate growth story as it is now more than just making money and satisfying customers.
Fresh from its 25th anniversary celebration last year, information and communication technology ( ICT) solutions provider, Sarawak Information Systems Sdn Bhd (SAINS), has recorded exponential growth since its inception with products and solutions found in various governmentsbodiesandprivate organisations in Malaysia and abroad.
Best known for its worldclass ICT business solutions, SAINS has garnered numerous domestic as well as international awards for its wide range of innovative and cost effective ICT solutions.
On the global platform, SAINS was voted as one of the ‘25 Most Promising GIS Solution Providers in Asia Pacific’ by Asia Pacific CIO Outlook Magazine 2016.
While SAINS continues its ascend in the ICT sector and its expansion across the globe, the organisation stayed firm to its core value of giving back to the community.
SAINS’ Rural ICT Guided Home-based Technopreneur ( RiGHT) programme and its supplementary RiGHT Community Healthcare Advancement Nurturing for Growth Ecosystem (CHANGE) programme embody that value as these programmes are aimed to uplift the rural community by bridging the digital divide between urban and rural areas in Sarawak.
“My passion that I want to incorporate into SAINS’ core, is to give back to the community and share what we are doing with the community.
“In my previous experience as a civil servant, I had witnessed the socio-economic condition of the people the rural areas. As soon as we are able to ensure that SAINS can go at a steady pace, my goal is for us to share what we have done to the community,” SAINS chief executive officer Dato Teo Tien Hiong shared with BizHive Weekly recently.
He added, “My passion is also to bring socio- economic development and modernity to rural areas, so we can uplift the underprivileged communities in the rural areas. That is also the underlying philosophy behind RiGHT and RiGHT CHANGE.”
In line with the late Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem, fifth Chief Minister of Sarawak, SAINS’ CSR programmes revolves around the usage of technology to modernise the rural community.
“I have a concern and deep commitment to bridge the digital bridge between urban and rural areas and bring modernity to rural areas,” he said, last year in a speech read by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas during SAINS’ 25th Anniversary Dinner.
He added, “I have instituted a policy to go rural and set key performance indicators ( KPIs) for the state elected representatives to gauge their involvements with their respective constituents.
“And I can immediately see the relevancy of many current SAINS CSR programmes which can be adapted for this purpose.”
And with that, SAINS can be seen as making an effort in realising the late Adenan’s dream.
Teo said, “We want to see how we can leverage on technology and our skills in ICT, to produce a sustained, broad- based programme that will benefit the rural communities by way of socio-economic development, bridging the digital divide and bringing modernity to the rural areas.”
BizHive Weekly explores SAINS’ CSR efforts in Sarawak.
“In my previous experience as a civil servant, I had witnessed the socio-economic condition of the people the rural areas. As soon as we are able to ensure that SAINS can go at a steady pace, my goal is for us to share what we have done with the community.” Dato Teo Tien Hiong, SAINS chief executive officer
At the core of SAINS’ longest running CSR programme ; the Rural ICT Guided Homebased Technopreneur ( RiGHT) programme, is the aim to bridge the urbanrural digital divide in rural areas on a sustainable basis through ICT capacity building in youths.
As the saying goes, youths are the leaders of the future.
By of fering them an opportunity to improve their lives through using technology, the RiGHT programme encourages youths to play a more mea ni ng f u l role in t he s o cio - e c onomic development of their rural communities.
Its objective is also to create a generation rural youths that are ICT literate and groomed to provide ICT support within t he rural communities.
“We want to see how we can leverage on technology and our skills in ICT, to produce a sustained, broad- based programme that will benefit the rural communities by way of socio- economic development, bridging the digital divide and bringing modernity to the rural areas,” said Dato Teo Tien Hiong, SAINS’ chief executive officer.
Under t he RiGHT programme, selected youths/ candidates undergo a sixmonth intensive training course in ICT- related fields as well as a practical attachment to various units in SAINS. Candidates are also provided wit h ent r epr eneu r ship training.
Af ter graduat ion, these youths are then encouraged to set up RiGHT ICT Service Centres at their rural c ommu ni ti e s to provide services such as training, repairs, and ec omme rc e ser vic e s to promote rural cottage industries and eco- tourism from their communities. This is expected to enhance the monetisation of Sarawak’s rural human and natural resources.
“Following the programme, if the alumni still express interest or determination, we will continue to guide them or help them in things such as setting up an ICT centre,” said Teo.
“We hope to see our candidates living sustainable successful l ives. I f our candidates decided to return to his/ her rural village, we want to support them there to ensure that they could sustain their livelihood with the ski lls they’ve gained,” he added.
Now in its 12th year since its initiation in 2005, the RiGHT programme has seen over a hundred participants.
“From what I have seen, some have found jobs, some went on to continue their studies, some have returned to their rural community to set up ICT centres there and we will assist them with that,” Teo added.
The ripple effect of the programme can be seen as wide and far reaching as the RiGHT programme could benefit a multitude of parties.
Rural youths that have participated in the programme directly benefit from it in terms of being equipped with valuable and marketable skills.
It also offers them employment opportunities as well as a foundation to improve their lives.
The skills that SAINS have imparted on the participants can also be used to improve the livelihood of the community as participants could act as the local ICT experts in their own communities.
The establ ishment of RiGHT- suppor ted ICT centres in the community a lso brings modernity to rural communities as well as the opportunity to improve rura l l iving conditions.
On a wider sc al e , according to SAINS, the programme has the potential of creat ing a layer of R iGHT pa rt i c ip a nt s throughout the state, who could not only make a difference in bridging the urban- rural digital divide, but also be active players in the economic development of the state.
“On a larger scale, the programme could be an impor tant cont r ibutor to the ultimate national v i sion of knowle d ge economy and knowledge society,” it said.