Chong said since last month, three tech giants had announced their plans to invest in Malaysia namely Microsoft, Google and Tiktok’s parent company ByteDance.
KUCHING (June 20): The Sarawak government should review and improve on its investment strategies to avoid missing out on the wave of global tech companies’ investment into Southeast Asia and losing out to the state’s counterparts in Peninsular Malaysia, Chong Chieng Jen has suggested.
The DAP Sarawak chairman said since last month, three tech giants had announced their plans to invest in Malaysia namely Microsoft, Google and Tiktok’s parent company ByteDance.
“All these investments will be based in Peninsular Malaysia particularly in Johor, Selangor and Penang and it seems that Sarawak is not in the radar of investment destinations of these multinational companies.
“It is to be noted that the spin-off effect of these investments in the cloud and AI infrastructure will speed up the transformation of our economy from the convention model to digital and AI driven,” he said in a statement.
The Stampin MP said Sarawak cannot afford to be left out otherwise the state will continue to suffer the exodus of talents to Peninsular Malaysia, like what has happened over the past decades.
“Sarawak may not have the ecosystem for this high-tech industry and the logistic advantage.
“However, the state has the advantage of abundant clean and cheap energy and cheap lands,” he added.
He said the Sarawak government should capitalise on the state’s strength to attract these high-tech investments into Sarawak, especially given that the industry is also energy-intensive and there is international emphasis on the need for clean energy in their production line.
“Yet regrettably it seems that the Sarawak government is only happy with exporting our clean energy rather than using it to attract investments.
“Such modus is similar to their previous policy in allowing the export of logs rather than developing our wood and furniture industry. At the end of the day, only a handful of people make quick money from the logging industry, but the state as a whole did not develop any furniture manufacturing industry,” he said.
He said the state should not repeat the same mistake by merely exporting raw clean energy but to use the advantage of this clean energy to develop industries in Sarawak.