It's an understatement to suggest that Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg has grand plans for his state.
Nowhere is that more evident than in Kuching, perhaps the biggest urban conurbation in Borneo, with a combined population of about 700,000.
As the peak-hour traffic snarls attest, the best urban planning available (or maybe an absence of it) has made this moderate-sized city a living nightmare.
The building and expansion of urban roads have made little difference.
Part of the solution must be a public transport system. City buses seemed to have been edged out of its streets as it modernises, oddly enough.
Despite its sprawl, Kuching is too small for its profusion of private vehicles.
Thus, Abang Johari has a solution that is at once ambitious, expensive and even experimental: a so-called Autonomous Rap-id Transit (Art) for the Greater Kuching area that will, when commissioned, run to Serian, 40km outside the city.
Another line will connect to Kota Samarahan, the university and medical belt.
Yet another will whisk commuters to the Damai holiday peninsula where the Rainforest World Music Festival just concluded.
Abang Johari envisions that the areas in the vicinity of the Vivacity Megamall, a shopping and high-rise residential development in the Tabuan Jaya township, will become a satellite hub akin to the Mid Valley City development in Kuala Lumpur.
Already Kuching's largest commercial and residential development, the Vivacity complex will double or even treble in size in coming years.
This will become an urban nightmare, with a massive concentration of commercial and residential development on a single location, unless it is integrated with the Art network.
Which, one assumes, is precisely what Abang Johari meant when he talked up the idea of a satellite hub between Kuching and Kota Samarahan.
There is, however, a serious mismatch if one were to compare Kuching to Kuala Lumpur. The federal capital boasts a population in excess of that of the entire Sarawak.
This is highlighted only to emphasise how sparsely populated the state is and the challenges to bring a semblance of modernity to every nook and corner of this vast state.
Perhaps equal attention ought to be paid to finding ways to populate the state.
Already, senior state leaders have raised concerns about the state's falling birth rate.
If the natural rate of population growth is starting to dwindle, the implications of that for economic growth and future prosperity need to be studied and attended to.
Solutions to address this also need to be explored and discussed publicly.
Is encouraging immigration an option? Should incentives be offered to attract local-born talent to return rather than working and living abroad?
If so, what sort of incentives will attract them?
Should this be supplemented by incentives for other Malay-sians and even foreigners to consider making Sarawak their home?
With regard to the development of Kuching into the urban hub of Sarawak, greater thought should also be given to the ideal population size of the city to create a sustainable hub.
Is it a million, 1.5 million? How and how soon will we achieve such a goal?
For Kuching to ever become a moderately successful transportation hub — as an airport with regular regional connections and a port with cargo shipments coming in and going out — it needs to beef up its population.
The writer views developments in the nation, region and wider world from his vantage point in Kuching