The government is confident that Sarawak will achieve 50 per cent broadband penetration by the end of this year, state Minister of Planning and Resource Management II Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said today.

He said that as at June this year, the state enjoyed 46 per cent broadband penetration.

Awang Tengah, who is also in charge of information, said the two telecommunications companies under contract - Sacofa Sdn Bhd and Nanawa Resources Sdn Bhd - would build more telecommunications towers throughout the state.

Up to May, 62 of these towers had been built and 114 more were expected to be ready by next year, to be built at a cost of RM148 million, he said at the launch of the Sematan Community Broadband Centre, 140km from here.

Awang Tengah said information technology developed by the government should be utilised to promote local products and domestic tourism.

He said the Internet had made popular remote places such as Bario and Sematan in Sarawak, not only to tourists from elsewhere in the country but also from abroad.

- Bernama