During the era of Charles Vyner Brooke (1917–1946), he continued his predecessor's policy of promoting land cultivation and food self-sufficiency.

[20] The Brooke government had encouraged the planting of cash crops such as rubber, pepper, gambier, sago, sugar cane, tea, coffee, tobacco, and rice.

Despite vast tracts of empty land available for cultivation, total paddy production was insufficient to meet the demand of the local population and rice have to be imported especially in the 1930s.

One of such reasons was due to tendency of the local population to cultivate cash crops that can command a higher price than paddy such as coconut, sago, and rubber.

During the Brooke era, Japanese Nissa Shokai Estate started on an intensive, irrigated paddy cultivation at upper Samarahan in 1935.

However, all these measures had limited impact on food imports as European theatre of World War II broke out in 1939, thus making rubber prices attractive.

[23] On the whole, the Sarawak economy was mostly stagnant during the Brooke era, especially compared to nearby British colonies such as the Federated Malay States, Straits Settlements, and Lower Myanmar.

[22] After conquered Sarawak, the Japanese immediately sought to export raw materials especially timber and oil to resupply their arm forces.

The Japanese also opened up the Sarawak economy to Japanese companies such as Mitsui Norin and Mitsui Bussan, which controlled food production and trade, Mitsubishi (operating as Tawao Sangyo in Borneo) dominated sago industry, and Nissan Norin which controlled production of coconut oil.

Settlers who lived inland, have a hard time of finding river transport to market the produce themselves, thus food items were left to rot at the roadside.

[20] From 1981 to 2000, Sarawak chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud engaged in a policy called "Politics of Development", with a loose definition similar to Wawasan 2020.

Analysts believed that such policy later evolved into a practice of dishing out short-term infrastructure projects to win electoral support during elections.

Development of Sarawak-West Kalimantan border trade is expected to benefit organic foods, followed by palm oil, fisheries, and tourism industries.

[16] In July 2021, Sarawak government introduced "Post Covid-19 development strategy" through better economic structure, facilitate foreign and domestic investments, and expand physical and digital infrastructures.

[35] As of 2021, Sarawak, together with Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang have better Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) scores when compared to Selangor, Pulau Pinang, and Johor.

[41] In July 2023, World Bank announced that the gross national income (GNI) per capita in Sarawak exceeded US$13,205 (RM 61,500) for the first time, making it a high-income state in Malaysia, after Kuala Lumpur and Labuan.

[20] The following table shows macroeconomic indicators from 1970 to 2021:[20][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][4][74][3][41] The Pan-Borneo Highway is the major federal trunk road network that connects Sarawak to Sabah and Brunei with a total length of 1,060 kilometres (660 mi).

[76] This is partly due to high amount of soft peat soils in coastal regions (where the roads are constructed), inadequate planning,[77][78] and a lack of funding.

This policy designated Port Klang as the main container hub in Malaysia, where all the international cargo ships must make a stop.

Sarawak continued the traditional style of modernisation through large-scale agriculture, industrialisation, and urbanisation; with little room for the conservation of forests unless such conversation efforts are worthwhile in tourism development.

From 1946 to 1956, Royal Dutch Shell paid to Crown Colony of Sarawak equivalent to RM 0.40 to 0.80 of 1978 Malaysian ringgit per tonne in royalty fees.

In March 1978, Petronas entered a joint venture with Shell, Mitsubishi Corporation, and the government of Sarawak to develop liquified natural gas (LNG) projects.

[117] As of 2022, Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), a statutory body of the government of Sarawak, had partnered with various companies on hydrogen technology development, such as Petronas,[118] Japanese Eneos Corporation, Australian H2X Global, French group Thales New Energy, and South Korean Samsung Engineering, POSCO and Lotte Chemical.

[125] According to a study by Malaysian National Mineral and Geoscience Department in 2017, four districts in Sarawak namely Lundu, Bau, Serian, and Simunjan have non-radioactive rare earth elements (NR-REE) exceeding 300 parts per million (ppm).

Shifting cultivation is still practiced probably due to low opportunity cost; as a result of few alternative jobs that can command higher returns.

[155] In 1990, International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) made a visit to Sarawak and recommended that log production to be reduced to 9.0 million cubic metres for sustainable forest management.

[159] In November 2021, plant cloning laboratory was opened to cultivate Paulownia tree species as a source of lightweight timber.

[162] Dayak indigenous motif designs have been widely applied in handicrafts and cottage industries, but limited applications in locally manufactured furniture.

[166][167] However, local shipyards often rely on foreign labour and designs for large and sophisticated ships and do not employ the latest technologies in shipbuilding.

Most international tourism flies into Kuching in the south, so the sector in the north of the state is more dependent on tourists from the rest of Malaysia and neighbouring Brunei.