WITSA EMINENT PERSON AWARD

The Right Honorable Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg

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In 2010, WITSA established its highest decoration called the WITSA Eminent Person Award to honor and recognize those individuals who have made a significant and profound positive difference in the lives of others.  

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This year’s WITSA Eminent Person from the public sector leadership, which had given WITSA illustrious recipients like WITSA’s first Eminent Person Dr. Nelson Mandela and subsequent ones like the Rt. Honorable Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Rt. Honorable Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, is a luminary whose strategic vision has inspired the development of critical sectors and innovations for the betterment of his people’s future. The Right Honorable Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, Premier of Sarawak, is the recipient of the 2023 WITSA Eminent Person Award from the public sector.

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Under his mantle as Premier, Sarawak aspires to be a developed and high-income state by 2030. This entails doubling the size of Sarawak’s economy from RM136 billion in 2019 to RM282 billion in 2030 with a targeted annual growth of between six to eight percent as outlined in Sarawak’s Post COVID-19 Development Strategy 2030. 

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When he took over as Premier of Sarawak in 2017, he embarked on progressing Sarawak from depending on a traditional commodity-based economy to thriving with a Digital Economy leveraging on technology and innovation. Committed to providing internet connectivity to every citizen of Sarawak and building digital talent and encouraging the use of e- commerce and fintech to spur the economy, he is the father of Sarawak’s economic digitalization.

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