What began in 2017 as a bold push to embrace the digital economy has evolved into an ambitious drive to make Sarawak a creator of technology, innovation and opportunity. IDECS is in its ninth edition and the state’s journey from digital infrastructure to artificial intelligence, semiconductors and the space economy reflects Premier Abang Johari’s determination to build a progressive, high-income and developed Sarawak by 2030.

WHEN Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg spoke about transforming Sarawak through the digital economy barely three months after becoming Chief Minister (now Premier) in January 2017, there must have been people wondering whether he was looking too far ahead.

Sarawak was still confronting the familiar challenges of physical connectivity, rural infrastructure and an economy substantially dependent on natural resources, yet its new leader was already talking about big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and creating a digital economy capable of generating high-income jobs.

Nine years later, it is much easier to understand what Abang Johari saw then, because many of the ideas that sounded ambitious in 2017 have become part of Sarawak's development vocabulary today.

The International Digital Economy Conference Sarawak, or IDECS, which began in April that year with the theme ‘Transforming Sarawak Through the Digital Economy’, has evolved alongside Sarawak itself; from discussing why the state needed to embrace digitalisation to examining how its technology, talent and innovation can compete beyond our borders.

That first IDECS was therefore much more than another international conference where experts came, spoke and went home. It became the starting point of a policy shift that produced eight major initiatives, including the establishment of the Sarawak Multimedia Authority and Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation, improvement of ICT infrastructure, development of a Digital Village, promotion of e-learning, data hosting and big data, and the organisation of Digital Economy Labs; even the Development Bank of Sarawak formed part of that broader institutional push.

The Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy 2018-2022 subsequently gave structure to the ambition, covering 47 strategic actions across economic sectors and enabling areas, while institutions were created to turn policy into implementation.

Significantly, Sarawak was not content merely to copy somebody else's model: officials studied experiences in countries including Australia, Finland, Estonia, Germany, France and China while developing an approach suited to Sarawak's geography, economy and people.

IDECS itself provides an interesting timeline of how that thinking matured. The 2018 conference, themed ‘Data to Fuel New Economic Growth and Quality of Life’, focused attention on data intelligence, start-ups, smart communities and digital government, while IDECS 2019 moved towards ‘Envisioning Sarawak Future Living’, discussing smart cities, smart farming, 5G, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data and robotics.

By IDECS 2020, the theme ‘Data and Innovation in Accelerating Social and Economic Prosperity’ reflected another step forward, with data increasingly viewed not simply as information but as an economic resource capable of producing social and commercial value.

Then came IDECS 2022 with ‘Decoding Big Data for Environmental and Energy Sustainability’, demonstrating something important about Sarawak's digital philosophy technology would increasingly be connected with sustainability, energy and the management of our resources rather than pursued for technology's sake.

That connection became even clearer as Sarawak entered the Post COVID-19 Development Strategy 2030 era. IDECS 2023 centred on ‘Advancing Digital Economy for Sustainable Development’, followed in 2024 by ‘AI for Sustainable Development Navigating the Green and Circular Future’, and in 2025 by ‘AI & Green Evolution: Growth, Challenges and Community Resilience’ which is an unmistakable progression from digital adoption towards intelligent, sustainable and increasingly sophisticated economic transformation.

The transformation can perhaps best be understood by looking at what followed those early discussions. Sarawak Pay, now S Pay Global, introduced many Sarawakians to cashless transactions digital government services expanded telecommunications infrastructure became a development priority; innovation hubs emerged; and digital entrepreneurship, research, talent development and technology-based industries increasingly entered mainstream economic planning.

The Sarawak Digital Economy Blueprint 2030 has taken that journey further by setting measurable ambitions instead of leaving ‘digital economy’ as a fashionable slogan. Among its targeted outcomes are 96 per cent high-speed connectivity, between 39,000 and 48,750 new semi- and high-skilled digital jobs, 500 high-tech start-ups, 100 per cent online government service delivery and a digital economy contribution equivalent to 20 per cent of Sarawak's GDP, or RM56.4 billion, by 2030.

And now comes IDECS 2026, the ninth edition, carrying perhaps its most ambitious theme yet: ‘Scaling Innovation Ecosystems for a Borderless Economy: Earth, Orbit and Beyond’.

The message in the Premier's presentation is wonderfully simple despite the sophistication of the technology involved: “Grow here. Connect outward. Scale beyond our borders”, because the next objective is no longer merely for Sarawak to consume technology or participate in the digital economy, but to contribute products, expertise, intellectual property and solutions to a much larger regional marketplace.

Artificial intelligence illustrates just how far the journey has travelled. The plans now encompass the Sarawak Artificial Intelligence Centre, the Sarawak AI Blueprint 2026-2030 and a sovereign AI infrastructure platform providing locally governed computing and protection for strategic government data, complemented by the proposed Kuching AI Data Campus at Tanjung Embang.

More importantly, the approach is moving from strategy to infrastructure and from infrastructure to practical application. The proposed AI Grid is intended to connect computing resources using Sarawak's renewable-energy capacity, while ADAM AI is envisaged as practical AI for the Sarawak Civil Service; precisely the sort of application that demonstrates why digitalisation ultimately matters: better decisions, better services and greater economic value.

The same ambition can be seen in semiconductors, where the Sarawak Semiconductor Roadmap 2030 aims to move the state further into higher-value design, specialised engineering, research and talent development.

The significance is obvious instead of remaining merely at the consuming end of advanced technology, Sarawak wants its people involved in designing the chips, developing applications and building expertise required by AI, advanced manufacturing, energy technologies and aerospace.

And, remarkably, the digital journey that started on the ground in Kuching in 2017 is now looking towards space. Sarawak's 2030 nanosatellite aspiration using CubeSat technology envisages applications in Earth imagery, geolocation, environmental monitoring, resource management and better planning, while the Aerospace Academy at CENTEXS Lundu is helping develop the human capability necessary to venture into the broader aerospace and space-related economy.

This is where Abang Johari's digital strategy deserves particular attention, because beneath the terminology of AI, semiconductors, data centres and satellites remains a very human objective.

His IDECS26 presentation makes the point that investment and collaboration must strengthen Sarawakian talent, local businesses, research institutions and supply chains, because technology has little meaning if its benefits do not eventually reach ordinary people.

There will, of course, remain challenges, particularly in ensuring reliable connectivity throughout a vast state where settlements are scattered across difficult terrain, and in producing enough highly skilled Sarawakians to sustain these emerging industries.

Digital transformation must also remain inclusive so that rural communities, small businesses and older citizens are participants rather than spectators, because a truly digital Sarawak cannot consist of sophisticated technology concentrated only in major urban centres.

But that is precisely why IDECS has mattered over these nine years. It has provided continuity to the conversation while the conversation itself has changed from infrastructure to data, from data to smart living, from smart living to sustainability, from sustainability to artificial intelligence, and now from AI towards an interconnected ecosystem embracing semiconductors, talent development, aerospace and the emerging space economy.

Perhaps the strongest indication of where this is heading comes in the plans for IDECS 2027, its 10th edition, which is envisaged in conjunction with the World Innovation, Technology and Services Alliance Global AI Summit 2027 in Kuching.

The objective is to connect Sarawak's emerging AI ecosystem with international networks involving technology, investment, research and policy another indication that Sarawak increasingly wants the world to come here not merely to tell us about technology, but to work with us in developing it.

Back in 2017, Abang Johari argued that Sarawak could not ignore the technological world in which its young people were already living and that the state had to create opportunities for them at home.

Nine years on, that early digital dream has grown into something considerably larger: an economic strategy linking renewable energy with AI, digital infrastructure with advanced manufacturing, semiconductors with aerospace, and local talent with a borderless global marketplace.

IDECS has therefore become more than an annual date on Sarawak's conference calendar it has become something of a marker recording the state's transformation year by year. The destination remains developed and high-income status by 2030, but Sarawak is no longer merely asking how to catch up with the digital world increasingly. It is asking what it can contribute to that world.

That may ultimately be the most telling measure of how far we have travelled since 2017. Build here, connect to the world and look beyond is the message of IDECS26, and for a Sarawak that once feared being left behind by the digital revolution, looking beyond may be the clearest evidence yet that it has acquired the confidence to look ahead.