Pilot digital registration of foreigners a success: DCM
Published on: Monday, February 05, 2024
By: Sherell Jeffrey
Highlighting the positive response received during the pilot project, Jeffrey asserted that many foreigners have willingly participated in the digital registration process.
Kota Kinabalu: Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan is confident the digital registration of foreigners currently underway in Sabah will be a success.
The Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food Industries Minister said the pilot project, which began in plantations, has yielded great results, prompting the expansion into the industries, services and construction sectors.
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He said this after officiating the Rural Development Corporation (KPD) Tamu in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebration in Likas Bay, Saturday.
Highlighting the positive response received during the pilot project, Jeffrey asserted that many foreigners have willingly participated in the digital registration process.
He said upon completion of the digital registration of foreigners the focus would shift to the local population.
“Our focus is currently on foreigners but after that we need to digitalise everyone for security and identification purposes.
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“The government must provide the funds for this purpose but the funds is not there yet,” he said, adding that the funds is currently only for digital registration of all foreigners.
“From the digital census we can issue a Sabah IC,” he said.
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Responding to a query regarding the suggestion to accept the children and grandchildren of Project IC holders as Sabahans, Jeffrey acknowledged the complexity of the matter.
While recognising that the offspring of Project IC holders may lack awareness of their country of origin, he emphasized the necessity of finding a resolution to the prevailing challenges.
“There has to be solution and I agree that the offspring may not even know their country of origin, thus consideration should be given,” he said.
“The most important thing now is to get the data of all foreigners,” said Jeffrey who heads the special committee for the exercise.
On the programme at hand, he expressed how happy he was to see the encouraging response from both vendors and customers at the monthly KPD tamu.
Renovations are also currently being done to have a restaurant offering various dishes at the KPD site which has some 200 stalls selling agricultural products, among others.
He hopes collaboration will also be seen in other festivities, adding that a Fisheries Festival is also scheduled to be held this year.
“We hope this will be a business platform especially for agriculture and seafood and attract both local and international visitors as well as investors interested in the food industry,” he said.
Present was KPD Chairperson Jannie Lasimbang, among others.
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