IDECS 2026 puts a borderless economy on the table in Kuching

The ninth International Digital Economy Conference Sarawak (IDECS) opens at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on October 5 and runs for two days under the theme “Scaling Innovation Ecosystems for a Borderless Economy: Earth, Orbit and Beyond”.

Organisers are expecting more than 20,000 attendees from over 30 countries and more than 100 speakers. Semiconductor innovation and the space economy join this year’s programme alongside artificial intelligence, digital talent and future cities.

The Digital Economy Awards return at the gala dinner with seven categories, from Digital Government to Digital Creative Industry.

Each category winner receives RM10,000 and the Premier Award recipient RM20,000, Bernama reported after the Sarawak Multimedia Authority announced the line-up.

The conference also has a habit of launching things: DE Rantau Sarawak, the state’s digital nomad programme, was unveiled at the IDECS 2024 opening.

A borderless economy runs in 2 directions

For Sarawak, borderless has mostly meant outward. AirBorneo starts direct Kuching-Jakarta flights this month, S Pay Global announced in 2024 that it would bring in cross-border QR payments for visitors from Indonesia, and SarawakPass now works as a single login for state digital services.

It also runs inward, and a Sarawak MP has already asked Parliament about the least welcome part of that. Betong MP Datuk Dr Richard Rapu wanted to know how many online gambling portals had been blocked.

The Communications Ministry’s written reply, published on July 16, said internet service providers blocked 1,778 gambling websites at MCMC’s request between January 2025 and May 2026, while platforms removed 457,562 gambling-related posts, The Star reported.

What is being blocked is localised in the way IDECS panels usually describe as an opportunity.

The sites publish guides aimed squarely at Malaysian readers, and one such guide, written in Bahasa Melayu, ranks offshore operators led by BC.

Game, which it lists under a licence from Anjouan in the Comoros, quotes the operators’ bonuses in ringgit, and names Touch ‘n Go eWallet and DuitNow as the payment methods it recommends, with withdrawals usually processed within 24 hours.

Language, currency and checkout are all local. Only the licence is foreign.

A 1953 law and a 2025 law

None of that makes the activity legal here. The Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 has applied in Sarawak since 15 April 1992, and the Court of Appeal ruled in October 2023 that gambling on a computer is an offence under it. A licence issued in the Indian Ocean has no standing in a Malaysian court.

The ministry’s reply set out who does what. Gambling falls to the police under the 1953 Act, while MCMC provides investigative support and blocks sites under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and the Online Safety Act 2025.

Blocking deals with an address rather than the operator behind it, which is why a question asked in Parliament by the MP for Betong is also a question for a digital economy conference.

2 days at BCCK

Sarawak runs its own parts of the digital stack, from SarawakPass to S Pay Global, and those are the parts where identity and payments get checked.

Panels on future cities and digital government will spend most of their time on what Sarawak can build and sell beyond its borders. The more useful session may be the one that asks what is already coming in.

Article sources: Bernama, The Star, Borneo Post.