(Sarawak Tribune; October 15th, 2004)

KUCHING – Sarawak Forestry was the pride of Sarawak after winning the Best E-Government and Services category at the Multimedia Super Corridor Asia Pacific Information, Communication and Technology Award or MSC-APICTA 2004 for its involvement named timbernet.The MSC-Asia Pacific ICT Awards (MSC-APICTA), which is under the patronage of the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, provides a platform to stimulate creativity, innovation and excellence in ICT in Malaysia, benchmark Malaysian ICT products and solutions, and to recognise outstanding achievements in ICT of students, technopreneurs, SMEs and organisations with operations in Malaysia.

Sarawak Forestry will now represent Malaysia at the international Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) in Hong Kong this December. Its submission, an innovation approach in timber resource management which offers key solutions to the issues faced by the industry, operating agencies, governments and consumers.

Its managing director Datu Cheong Ek Choon received the award from Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak at a glittering ceremony held at the JW Marriot in Putra Jaya Wednes-day evening. The competition for the prestigious award was extremely keen with the participation and submissions of many major organisations.Elaborating on the solution, Sarawak Forestry’s general manager for Security and Asset Protection Unit, Sani Bakar, who is the Head of the Project Development Team and the person responsible for the concept and eventual materialization of the product, informed of the global concern and demand for visibility and accuracy in timber. Importing countries, traders and consumers demand for legally sourced timber and although there are in existence, various means of ascertaining them, the process remains cumbersome and time consuming.

“What we have done is provide a solution that is not only modular, enabling it to meet the needs of various user types. We also employ latest technological hardware available and place them on the internet platform that will solve all these needs and more,” said Sani.

Sarawak Forestry achieved the UKAS and DSM ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 accreditation in July this year. It subsequently launched its INTRANET Portal as its key organisational tool last month.On the success, Sani attributed it to leadership style and desire of the state.

“The vision of Chief Minister Pehin Sri Dr Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud laid the foundation for an organisation with a leadership model based on three characteristics, Visionary, Committed and Managerial”. “Such balance drives Sarawak Forestry towards its vision, which is to be globally recognised as the leader in tropical forest conservation and products,” he added.

Sani said: “The key operative word in our organisation is innovation. While many believe that to be a leader, we need to introduce new technology and while we will pursue that approach, we are also looking at exploiting existing technology, either finding new applications, or as with timbernet, integrating different technologies.”