(Borneo Post; October 25, 2008)

KUCHING: The Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud called on the private sector to invest in information technology (IT) systems as a way forward to boost their businesses.

"I would love to see the private sector, especially small and medium sized businesses think on how to adapt IT systems for their businesses that will enable them to keep better track of what's going on in their businesses," he added.

Such systems, he believed, should be able to assist their businesses in gathering more information and marketing efforts besides helping them to interact with customers either in the country or overseas.

IIn the case of the State government, Taib said it had engaged Sarawak Information Systems Sdn Bhd (SAINS) to develop an e-welfare system so that the government could review welfare recipients better.

Over the years, SAINS had also developed a system for the general administration in the State government at all levels," he added.

To a question, the Chief Minister said SAINS had grown to be a leading ICT systems integrator and solutions provider over the last 20 years but for now, it would concentrate on domestic market although the company had been approached by neighbouring countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.

Earlier, Taib was presented with a trophy won by SAINS at the prestigious MSC Malaysia Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2008 in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr. George Chan, who is SAINS chairman and SAINS Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Teo Tien Hiong presented the trophy.

The Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) and the Computer Association of Malaysia (Pikom) organised the event.

The Integrated Court System (ICS) by SAINS bagged the best e-Government and Services Category award.

ICS is currently in its second year of pilot usage in 26 Courts in Sarawak and first year implementation in 13 Courts in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

This award-winning ICT solution was judged based on its innovative use of technologies that enable transformation of internal and external judicial processes towards customer-centric government service delivery.

It comprises three main core modules, namely the Community and Advocates Portal (CAP), Court Management System (CMS) and Court Recording and Transcription System (CRT).

ICS was designed, developed and implemented entirely by SAINS with 0% dependency on foreign skills.

ICS has been chosen to represent Malaysia in the e-Government and Services Category at the coming International APICTA Awards in Jakarta, Indonesia

There are 16 member economies participating in this event and they are Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Taib was also presented with the Sarawak Federal Secretary's Innovation and Creative Awards (AIKSUPS) 2008 trophies by Kuching High Court Judge David Wong and Registrar of High Courts of Sabah and Sarawak Rhodzariah Bujang.

The Sarawak High Courts were awarded both the Best and Second prizes in the Management Category of the inaugural Sarawak Federal Secretary’s Innovation and Creative Awards (AIKSUPS) 2008 for the individual components of this Integrated Court System, namely the Court Case Management System and the Virtual Proceedings Video Conferencing System of ICS respectively.

These two award-winning submissions are sub-components of SAINS ICS.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok presented the AIKSUPS 2008 Awards in Kuching on 14th October 2008.