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HIGH ACHIEVER ... Lincoln University Chancellor Margaret Austin conferring a doctorate on Chee Weng Wong while Jabu (seated) looks on.

KUCHING - The State will be able to achieve the objectives of Vision 2020 by harnessing the potential "brain power" and skills from the rural areas and synergising it with the potential talents from the urban areas.

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Amar Alfred Jabu said at the Lincoln University graduation night at a hotel here on Saturday.

The wide gap in standard of education among the students in "the rural and urban areas was due to remoteness and lack of communication infrastructure and basic amenities, he said.

Presently, the rural population comprises of about 40 percent of Sarawak's 2.1 million people.

He added that it was observed that whenever rural students were given the opportunities to attend better equipped urban schools, their performance were comparable and sometimes even better than their urban counterparts.

Realising this potential he said the government was making all it could to improve and accelerate the implementation of education infrastructure in the rural areas.

Replacing a few thousand units of old teachers quarters with new comfortable ones equipped with electricity and water supply was an example of such commitment, he noted.

In addition, he said, the State government had brought foreign universities like the Curtin University and Swinburne Institute of Technology to its shore to meet the future manpower requirement especially in the field of engineering and technology.

Jabu pointed out that the government was also encouraging the civil servants to take up postgraduate courses on specialised fields relevant to the manpower requirement of the State.

In realising the Vision 2020, he said Sarawakians should not be complacent but work diligently and be committed in learning new ideas.

"We must be ready to mobilise and utilise our talents to take advantage of the opportunities which are made available through the reality of globalisation."

He noted that the successful implementation of the nation's education system had contributed towards political stability, racial harmony and economic progress.

And in this conducive climate the multi-racial communities in the country could to acquire knowledge and skills to prepare them to embark on digital competence towards knowledge based society, he said, adding that there was no substitute to quality education as it was the key to success.