KUCHING: Sarawak is taking a major step towards strengthening its women entrepreneurship ecosystem with the development of the Women Entrepreneurship Dashboard (WED), the state’s first integrated digital platform designed to provide real-time insights on women entrepreneurs.
Women, Childhood and Community Well-being Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the platform would serve as a centralised database to map the profiles, challenges, potential and support needs of women entrepreneurs across the state.
She said the development of WED is being undertaken by the Sarawak Women and Family Department (JWKS) in collaboration with the Ministry of International Trade, Industry and Investment and the Sarawak Civil Service Digitalisation Unit (SCSDU).
“Through this platform, information on the profiles of women entrepreneurs will be integrated into a centralised database powered by real-time data.
“This will enable us to understand the actual landscape of women entrepreneurs in Sarawak, including who they are, where they are located, the challenges they face, the potential that can be developed and the forms of support required.
“The platform will also be integrated with the Entrepreneur Database System (ENBASE) ecosystem,” she said at the 2026 Sarawak Women’s Day celebration held at Pullman Hotel on Sunday.
Fatimah said the initiative would enable policies, training programmes, financial assistance and capacity-building initiatives to be planned more accurately, swiftly and based on evidence.
She added that an allocation of RM370,000 had been requested to complete the development of WED.
Meanwhile, Fatimah said the One Stop Collection Centre (OSCC) in Samarahan, which was completed in 2022, would serve as a centre for the collection, development, grading, packaging, marketing and promotion of products produced by women entrepreneurs.
“Their products will be marketed globally through the Sarawak Trade and Tourism Office Singapore (STATOS) and the Sarawak Trade and Tourism Office Brunei Darussalam (STATOB), as well as trade and tourism offices that will be established in Kalimantan, Indonesia,” she said.
In a related development, she said OSCC has the potential to collaborate with AirBorneo to promote local products as in-flight offerings for passengers of the Sarawak-owned airline.
Meanwhile, in line with this year’s celebration theme, “Sarawak Women in the Digital Economy”, Fatimah said a book with the same title was published in collaboration with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and launched in July.
“The book features the success stories of 23 Sarawak women in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), digital entrepreneurship, research, innovation, system development and technology.
“This publication complements the Sarawak Women Book Series, which since 2010 has documented the journeys of 405 women leaders from various backgrounds and professions,” she said.
Fatimah also said the contributions of 23 academics, including 12 women, were highlighted through 13 articles in the book titled “Pedagogical Innovation Through Technology-Enhanced Learning Design: Global Case Studies and Implications for Practice.”
She said the Routledge-published book, edited by Professor Dr Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman and the late Dr Augustus Raymond Segar from Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak, was launched on June 23.
She added that three Sarawak women are currently pursuing the Master of Arts in Leadership Development programme at the Asia Women Leadership University College (AWLUC) in Penang through a Sarawak government sponsorship amounting to RM105,000.
Fatimah said the ministry hopes the sponsorship could be expanded to five cohorts in the future.
The Sarawak Women’s Day celebration was attended by more than 4,500 participants from 45 districts virtually, alongside agencies and entrepreneurs involved in exhibitions, services and product sales.
