Attracting more crowds to our Borneo Cultures Museum for the visitors' experience of Sarawak rich and colourful history

I have congratulated our Sarawak Museum Department for doing a great job in wooing locals and foreigners to our Borneo Cultures Museum (BCM) which was awarded the Malaysia Tourism Council (MTC) "Gold Award" for Museum of the Year Award for year 2022.

At the same time, the museum which is the largest in Malaysia and the second largest museum in Southeast Asia, had received a total of over 600,000 visitors since its opening on March 9 last year. This heartening to us because it showed the new iconic building and facility had received enormous interest from local folks and also from the rest of the world. Apart from the BCM,  a total of 171,643 visitors had also visited the other museums which are located throughout Sarawak.

Thus, I call on the department led by its new Director, Puan Nancy Haji Jolhi to continue their good job because the Brooke Dockyard Industrial Heritage Museum will be among the new facilities and galleries in Sarawak to be opened to visitors this year.

The new ones will include Santubong Archaeological Park, Wallace Centre, Limbang Museum and Rumah Sri Aman Gallery. I have revealed these in my speech at the recent "Jalinan Kasih" Appreciation Dinner which was organised by the department.  

The department is also undertaking14 projects in which six are to conserve and upgrade Fort Emma, Fort Brooke, Fort Lili, Fort Hose, Fort Sylvia and Fort Arundell.

The department is currently doing the content development for the old building of the Sarawak Museum and in the meantime, it will also open the old Sarawak Museum building for tours starting March this year. I am also happy the Islamic Heritage Museum and the Natural History Museum, are open to visitors while the Sultan Tengah Mausoleum located in Santubong, has reopened to visitors effective Feb 1 this year.

The department had embarked on the digitalising the "Sarawak Journal" publication with ongoing work to obtain Journal Management System with the cooperation from Sarawak Service Modernisation Unit and Sarawak Information System Sdn Bhd (SAINS). Currently, there are eight-book series being launched and the publication is the results from research works of the Sarawak Museum Department curator together with external researchers. Sarawak had also be given the honour to host the national-level International Museum Day that would be held in Kuching in July this year with the theme “Museums, Sustainability and Well-being.”