SARAWAK GOV'T PLANS TO INTRODUCE E-RESIDENT FOR FOREIGN EXPERTS ON SHORT STAY
KUCHING, Aug 4 (Bernama) -- The Sarawak government planned to introduce e-resident to facilitate the entry of professionals and specialists from around the world who are required for the industries in the state.
The State Premier said that he had sent a team to study the mechanism and implementation of the e-resident in Estonia, a country that Sarawak could emulate as a model for this initiative.
“Once I have the model (for implementation), I will bring it to the State Assembly to get approval for e-resident,” he told reporters after attending the launching Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s Tun Abang Haji Openg Digital Centre (TAHODC) at Kota Samarahan, near here today.
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