He said the state government would work together with the industries in Sarawak as well as the embassies or high commissions to screen through the e-resident applications before approving them.

“It must be G to G (government to government). We are going to use the data provided by the government of the applicant’s country before we issue the e-resident,” he said.

Abang Johari said the status of the e-resident holders would be similar to those who are permanent residents of the state where they could enter and leave Sarawak without too much immigration hassles.

He said that the e-resident would be something new in Malaysia but had been implemented by a number of countries due to the global expansion of companies around the world. 

“Strategic personnel (of the companies) who have to come often (and stayed for a short period) can do so without much (immigration) hassle,” he added.

On the establishment of the UNIMAS digital centre, he said this came as a right move towards producing more data specialists in Sarawak as it progressed further in its endeavour in digital economy.

“A lot of processes are technologically-based, so we need our university to migrate towards new technology, new discipline, new process and that will produce graduate that match the needs (of the industries),” he added.

-- BERNAMA