Ideas
A wife in your pocket
By Nurhafizah Yusof
Pictures by Flanegan Bainon
Duo wins 20,000 ringgit from Sabah government to develop a mobile app
Want to pull your purse strings? Then you need a “smart wife in your pocket.” That’s how Lim Tzyy Shyong and John Wong call their mobile application to budget their daily expenses. The two 29-year-old bachelors know that a woman is good at managing finances. And their idea won them 20,000 ringgit ($6,300) from the Sabah government at the final of the Sabah Got Ideas contest on November 20 that will help them develop their app.
Lim and Wong say the idea came to them when they were totting up their lunch bill. “We wanted to make an application that will help people budget their expenditure,” Wong says. “It’s kind of having a financial controller.”
But it goes further. The app will help its users find bargains. Knowing you have only so much money to spend will naturally make you look for bargains, they say.
Lim and Wong plan to develop two versions of their app: a free one with limited access and another that will cost just $2 to give users all the features that they need.
They will join four other winners on a programme to turn their ideas into viable business in about six months. The Sabah Techpreneur Association (Sata) and the ministry of resource development and information technology will monitor their progress, mentoring and supporting them along the way.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr Yee Moh Chai, who is minister of resource development and information technology, is encouraged that more than 100 took part in the contest. This shows that Sabahans have ideas and he now wants Sata to bring the programme to the villages.
“Work with e-Desa centres (cyber cafés in the village), youth organizations and other non-government organizations and form strategic partnership with them,” he says. “As long as you have the community’s interest at heart, I am sure your programme will be successful.” – Insight Sabah
Posted on 25-11-2011 04:26 pm
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We are making Sabah not just a gateway for trade, investment and tourism but a modern, vibrant, prosperous and harmonious place to live.
Prime Minister Najib Razak speaking at the open day of the Sabah Development Corridor in Kota Kinabalu on February 16.