Sarawak was the only Southeast Asian state government to send representatives to join the 500 or so people who attended this year’s forum, which also included Asean country heads of mission, business chamber representatives and business leaders.

The East Malaysian state has made no secret of its ambitions to become the top green economy in Southeast Asia since 2021, when it launched its Post Covid-19 Development Strategy 2030. The plan aims to increase the state’s median monthly household income while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent.

“My goal is clear. To boost economic productivity while reducing emissions,” Abang Johari told the forum.

Safeguarding the Sarawakian environment and making sure Sarawak’s growth does not lead to an overconsumption of resources and high emissions have been key to achieving these goals, Abang Johari added.

Sarawak has also asserted its autonomy and passed new state laws that would advance its energy transition policies ahead of federal regulations, an accomplishment that has now led the state to work with Kuala Lumpur on national laws, Abang Johari told This Week in Asia.

Before speaking at the forum, Abang Johari and his delegation visited hi-tech research laboratories at Swinburne University of Technology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Melbourne.

At Swinburne, he said he hoped to develop a programme where Sarawakian students would undergo aerospace education at a campus located in Sarawak before further training with organisations like the US’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa).

Abang Johari said dealings with Australia on green energy projects such as hydrogen energy were still in their early stages, but signs are promising that Sarawak is on its front foot. He also noted that his state’s hydrogen production is just ahead of Australia’s.

“I think we are quite advanced. I was a little surprised that we are ahead of a developed country!” he said during a press conference on Thursday.

The Sarawakian delegate also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding to develop more business deals between the Australia Malaysia Business Council (AMBC) and the Sarawak Australia Business Council (SABC), the only Malaysian state-dedicated Australian chamber.

While he has yet to meet with Canberra, Abang Johari said he was keen to facilitate more people to people exchange, a key goal within Canberra’s latest economic strategy with Southeast Asia.

Indeed, Australia’s “Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040”, which was unveiled at the Asean-Australia special summit in March, underpinned much of the panel discussions at the forum.

Both Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell and Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres were at the forum, with Ayres acknowledging that Australia still had a long way to go with its plans to deepen ties with Southeast Asia, especially with its grasp of Southeast Asian languages and cultures.

The declining number of Australian students studying the Indonesian language, for example, “deserves attention”, Ayres said.

Bran Black, the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, the country’s leading business council, pledged to help the Australian and Southeast Asian governments strike more bilateral trade and business deals and facilitate more people exchanges.

Speaking at a panel, Mark Gustowski, the managing director of Mandalay Venture Capital in Australia, also urged Australian businesses to take more initiative in Southeast Asia.

“For far too long, we’ve sat here and waited for Asean to come to us, and I hate to say that’s not going to happen. It doesn’t matter what you do, it’s not going to happen. It’s a bigger market over there.”

“Because at the moment, a lot of what we see and what we do is working with a series of middle class economies that like to talk about Asean as an acronym, but not necessarily as a true partnership.”