Fatimah (sixth left) joined by officials from her ministry, SMA, SSMU and Socoe after presenting the Digital Government Services Award to Abang Johari (sixth right).

KUCHING (Feb 23): The Ministry of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development, through its ‘iSarawakCare’ web application which has won the ‘Digital Government Services’ award through London Design Awards in London last year, will make the ministry’s service accessible to all soon.

Its minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said ‘iSarawakCare’ offers convenient single-point access to government initiatives, assistance and services covering inter-generation spectrum social equity in the community via a flexible, interoperable data system.

“The platform’s online nature allows the public to submit applications at any time and from any location, while also giving real-time updates between system administrators and the public on the updates of the government’s programmes, as long as there is internet.

“It enables a person to get information or services provided under our ministry and secondly, it allows a person to apply for government initiatives such as maternity assistance, endowment fund, special annual grant for nurseries and kindergartens, assistance for kidney patients, other health assistance, Kenyalang Gold Card and so on.”

She said this after presenting the Digital Government Services Award to Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg at the latter’s office in Wisma Bapa Malaysia today.

The design and development of iSarawakCare is done by the ministry together with the Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) as the project coordinator.

The State Services Modernisation Unit (SSMU) acts as the Steering Committee and Technical Committee to give advice and consultation on standard and system requirements, while Socoe Sdn Bhd acts as the system developer.

Living up to its tagline of ‘One Click at Your Service’, the iSarawakCare portal is integrated with existing systems in Sarawak such as SarawakNet, SarawakID, State Treasury, banks as well as federal government systems.

“It’s an end-to-end and one of the first in Sarawak integrating all departments under the ministry and also integrating both Sarawak state and federal government systems together in order to make it easy.

“Under the London Design Awards, we are the first in Sarawak to win the gold category for the digital government. It’s a pride for everybody, the ministry, SMA, SSMU and Socoe.

“Since this is a digital platform, one of the things we should pay attention to, so that this can benefit everyone especially the older generations who may not use IT much, the inter-generation factor is necessary and given attention, where the young will teach the parents how to access ‘iSarawakCare’,” she said.

Meanwhile, during Fatimah’s courtesy call to the Sarawak Premier, on behalf of her ministry, she extended an invitation to Abang Johari to officiate at the state-level Women’s Day scheduled on March 18, 2023 at the Penview Convention Centre (PCC).

Last year, the Sarawak Women’s Day celebration was held in Miri.

She said the highlights of the programme include awards to be given to deserving women such as the Laila Taib Award, Women’s Leadership Award, Entrepreneurial Award, Social Activist Award, outstanding NGOs, and the Sarawak Premier Award for special achievements, among others.