Federal, state agencies must look into ways to integrate market in Sarawak with Semenanjung

Perhaps, the time has come for relevant agencies both at the Federal and State levels to look into ways of integrating the market in Sarawak with those in Peninsular Malaysia.  This will be more in conformity to the Concept of 1Malaysia and a push towards greater economic integration in the country.  

At the moment, Sarawak has been exporting goods worth at an average of RM50 million every year to Peninsular Malaysia but a bigger volume to the world market. In other words, Sarawak has been exporting more goods abroad than to Peninsular Malaysia.   At the same time, Sarawak has been importing quite a lot of goods from Peninsular Malaysia to such an extent that the return cargo ships from Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia are often quite empty; they are not loaded with goods.

Obviously, the problem of empty cargo ships returning from Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia ought to be tackled gradually in order to increase the participation of the people in Borneo in the market in Peninsular Malaysia. That will contribute towards the development of healthy economy for the country in the future.

Senari Port

The problem must be looked into so that the local people can increase their income and business volume through participation in bigger and more integrated market in Peninsular Malaysia.  That will mark a healthy development of the economy for the country, between Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak in particular in the future.

Generally, Sarawak is looking at a bigger picture in carrying out the economic transformation program. It is looking at the overall economic transformation of the country, the total impact of the economic transformation throughout the nation. The State’s potentials, if fully exploited will need more enterprising people from outside Sarawak but within Malaysia to see how it can, through having more investment, become more active in moving towards the higher status of economy.

The target to create 1.5 million jobs in Sarawak by the year 2020 will not be easily met by local labour force. Gradually, the job market in the whole country must be integrated.  For Sarawak, the danger is not in having outsiders but having them suddenly in large numbers without making prior preparations.

Hence, the local training institutes could help to ensure that people, who are not employed on the other side, will have opportunities on this side.  For example, there was a gradual mix of people from Peninsular Malaysia with the local people during the initial stage of the opening of LNG plant in Bintulu; it was a good thing. 

Plywood Factory in Sibu

As the State does not have sufficient manpower to man heavy industries that will come up, the state may have to recruit people with necessary skills and expertise from Peninsular Malaysia for the purpose.  But the exercise must be done very carefully so that it does not create social problems.

Therefore, the development of SCORE is not just a regional affair for Sarawak but it is something to look at on a larger scale as a national cake with the better capacity to upgrade the whole economy of Malaysia to become high income economy.

Understandably, the State will be able to achieve the aim of transformation plan to migrate from the medium income to the high income economy faster than expected.  This will be based on the assumption that the development of Sarawak must be looked at as a part of that for the country and  the creation of jobs will be for the people of Malaysia  and not only for those in Sarawak.

However, the people must have a clear overall picture of the development in Sarawak, the development of SCORE in particular to enable them to play their roles with greater efficiency and productivity to push Malaysia ahead as part of the overall economic transformation program.

However, Sarawak and probably Sabah too, have slightly different settings from Peninsular Malaysia in terms of reliance on the private sector, which has achieved important strength in the National economy. The private sector is expected to come up with 92% of investment while the government, 8% only.

A general survey indicates that  some people get frightened that with only 8% of public sector investment, the State may not be able to develop sufficient infrastructure as required by investors. Besides, they are concerned that insufficient infrastructure will affect small payers the most.  Hopefully, the ratio will not be strictly enforced in Sarawak as its development still rely on public sector investment, the development of infrastructure in particular.

For example, Sarawak has been left out in the development of telecommunication because the market is not good especially in rural areas. Therefore, the State cannot rely on the private sector for the development of telecommunication in rural areas. Obviously, public sector investments alone will not be able to hasten the pace of economic transformation of the State and country. 

Basically, SCORE was designed after analysing the potentials of food production using biotechnology and the generation of sufficient energy at reasonable costs to cater for energy intensive industries. The development of hydro dams to generate electricity requires huge investments. It entails construction of roads, numerous bridges, ports and airports and other infrastructural facilities.

Hence, all projects have to be planned properly as they require huge investment from the public sector. Besides, the government is also developing coal-fired power generating stations to ensure that State will be able to produce a fair mix of energy from hydro power and coal toward the year 2020. The state has coal reserves of more than ½ a billion at Balingian in Mukah and Nanga Merit in Ulu Kapit.

Lubuk Antu Palm Oil Mill

Understandably,  the response from world industry players has been very positive.  More big firms, which require huge amount of power consumption, have expressed their interests to set up industries in Sarawak.  That means the State has to develop more hydro dams, each requires a huge amount of investment, to generate electricity that can be charged at reasonable costs to consumers. As a consequence, the State has to construct roads to cut across hills or mountains, deep ravines and rivers to interior parts of the State in order to construct hydro dams; the construction of roads alone requires huge investments. 

Where ever feasible, the State Government tries to improve some of the timber roads in order to get the supply of electricity available as soon as possible. The State is trying very hard to avoid delays in terms of infrastructure development as it is very important for Sarawak to achieve the target investment figure of more than 200 billions within 20 years up to the year 2030.

As Sarawak has to push for the development of heavy industries, it has to deal with global players. Generally, negotiations with them are very tough. They want speed in everything.  For example, they want the infrastructural connectivity to be available by certain dates. In other words, the roads and other things must be provided to them according to their time tables.

Obviously, Sarawak, which has been getting fast response from big investors, may have to run faster than its capacity to do so. The big players believe that the State government can deliver what ever they require from it. The small people, on the other hand, look at heavy industries as investments to benefit foreigners only. Of course, this is not true. For example, one smelter plant can have spin off effects that can create four times more business and employment opportunities through downstream industries for the people.

Obviously, the development of SCORE embraces the exploitation of a total of 1 million hectares of palm oil estates, which are almost contiguous with each other. The palm oil industry can create a lot of downstream industries for small players. Since last year quite a lot of small operators have started to produce foods either from sea products or fruits through the cottage industries. Generally, the people, the women in particular, are showing a lot of enthusiasm towards the development of cottage industry.

 *Source:

 google.com.my
http://sarawakmonitor.blogspot.com/