(Sarawak Tribune; August 28th, 2004)

Pusa (Bahagian Betong) - Electronic Resource Cen-tre (ER-Centre) will be set up in all sub-districts in the State by 2007, said State Secretary Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz Husain yesterday.

"The setting up of these electronic centres is to enable the public to deal and obtain services from the various government de-partments and agencies," said Aziz at the launching of Pusa Electro-nic Resource Centre by Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Infrastructure Development and Communications at the Pusa Sub-District Office here.

Aziz's text of speech was read by Betong's Resident Romie Sigan Daniel. According to him, through ICT facilities such as computer, internet and communication channel found available at such electronic resour-ce centre, the public would not have to go to the bigger towns or even to Kuching to deal with the de-partments and agencies anymore.

"Through facilities available at these Electronic Resource Cen-tres, all basic dealings which do not require direct personal interaction like getting applications forms, searching for information or application for jobs, can now definitely be carried out easily and speedily," he said.

He gave an example where people in Pusa need not go to the State Public Service Commission office in Kuching to get application forms, submit them or make inquiries on the status of their application.

"The applicants only need to register with the e-recruitment system and they will be given access," he said, adding that with the account given, the applicants could directly check through the system if there were appropriate reply to their qualification as advertised.

Aziz said the Electronic Resour-ce Centre was an example of service presentation system which the state government was developing in its effort to improve its service to the public.

"I am confident the effort will spur development in the rural areas and most importantly it will be able to open up greater opportunity to the government in providing transparent and direct services to the public," he added