KUCHING (Oct 28): Sarawak needs more experts in technology and technical fields to drive development projects and achieve its goal of becoming a developed state by 2030.

Political Secretary to the Premier of Sarawak, Kho Teck Wan, said this when delivering the keynote address at the closing ceremony of the Sarawak Scratchathon Coding Challenge held at TEGAS Digital Village yesterday.

"So how do we achieve this target for Sarawak? The way forward is to nurture interest and talent from a young age. Start now.

"And after you've submitted your projects, one word that caught my attention was 'debugging'. This is the next step after coding," she said when attending the event on behalf of Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian.

However, Kho noted that there is still a lack of female participation in engineering and computer science.

Hence, she encouraged more female students to explore and persevere in these fields.

At the same time, she pointed out that although artificial intelligence (AI) can assist in writing codes, it remains a human creation, and thus inherits human flaws.

"This is where real programmers play an important role, to identify and correct AI's errors.

"The future of coding doesn't mean we stop learning because AI will do everything. No, we must become the ones after AI -- the ones who teach and guide AI when it makes mistakes," she emphasised.

A total of 800 participants from 162 schools across Sarawak took part in the event.

Also present were Padawan District Education Office deputy officer Winston Dominic Ritay and Association of the Boards of Management of Aided Chinese Primary Schools Kuching, Samarahan, and Serian Division chairman, Dato Jonathan Chai.