For us in Sarawak, our common struggle must necessarily be to ensure that the economy will continue to grow at a decent pace in order to generate sufficient employment and business opportunities for the people. The vocal complaint by the Opposition DAP that Sarawak is still the fourth poorest state in the country will not push it to the higher level of economic achievement without making bold steps to develop the economy. DAP’s comparison of Sarawak with Selangor and Pulau Pinang, just show how ignorant and shallow the party’s elected representatives can be.
Whatever DAP says about the state of the economy, the State Government is taking the bold steps forward to make a quantum leap within the framework of the the Economic Transformation program, a Federal initiative to migrate the economy from the medium to high income economy towards the year 2020. The development of SCORE will push the State to the era of massive industrial development that will bring it to the same level of socio - economic development and progress as in Semenanjung Malaysia, not just Selangor and Pulau Pinang, the jewels of the Opposition, which began their development in earnest six years earlier.
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| Asean Bridge connecting Miri- Brunei |
Admittedly, now Sarawak, which is almost of the same size as Peninsular Malaysia, is in the same stage of development as it was in late 80s in terms of physical infrastructure and industrial development. Sarawak has a big land area and small population, which is scattered in small groups comprising of more than 5,000 settlements over a very wide area. Hence, when Malaysia opened its door to foreign direct investment in the late 80s, the focus was on Peninsula to the great disadvantage of Sarawak with its small population and economy.
As a consequence, Peninsular Malaysia could undergo active period of building roads including the North - South expressway, ports including Tanjung Pelepas port in Johor, the expansion of power supply with IPPs or Independent Power Producers, the expansion of the water main power and many other projects. The stock market was liberalized and the Security Commission established. The federal strategy, in the early 1990s, was to privatize infrastructure projects and much of the funds were sourced from capital markets.
Now Sarawak urgently needs bigger allocation from the Federal government to develop infrastructure facilities as prerequisites to the proper development of the industrial base. In addition, it must build suitable ports so that international trade can take place on a bigger scale, better roads and means of connectivity both internally and with the rest of the world. The State must also deliver sufficient water and electricity on a stable, reliable and reasonable basis to major industries that are coming up.
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| Kuala Baram |
Therefore, the State needs a good funding strategy to develop infrastructure facilities that are required by the industrial sector as it moves to a higher level of industrial development. For example, it must continue to build critical mass facilities in order to meet the requirement of big investors on the ground. Four of them have already committed billions of ringgit worth of investment to Sarawak. Many more investors are waiting to get basic facilities to develop their operational facilities.
Henceforth, the growth of the economy comes from the government spending and projects. However, conscientious efforts are being made to raise the income levels of the community across the board towards the year 2020 and beyond. Hence, the development of the economy has to depend more and more on private investments both from within and outside the country.
Obviously, the quantum leap can be achieved by a significant injection of private investments, both locally and foreign. This paradigm shift in development strategy requires a similar paradigm shift in the mindset of the people. In other words, as Sarawakians aspire to enjoy high incomes they must be prepared to be trained to work hard and smart and to be more organized as productive communities.
More importantly, they must be prepared to venture out of the old thinking and experience and embrace wholeheartedly the advances in the modern world. For example, they must appreciate that the benefits of SCORE will be accrued by those who have the skills and expertise.
Indisputably, Sarawak is undergoing a significant transition from being an essentially agro-based economy with some reliance on mining and manufacturing activities to embrace a modern economy. However, the development of SCORE, which requires major funding for successful implementation, will drastically change the pattern of development from now onward. The successful implementation of SCORE will provide opportunities for Sarawak to catch up with the development and progress of Peninsular Malaysia. Its huge benefits will not only for Sarawak but the whole of Malaysia.
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| Sibu Durin Bridge |
SCORE is dynamic for Sarawak’s situation. It is a homegrown development strategy, which takes advantage of reasonably priced energy from hydro and others to attract world class industries to build industrial clusters. The State’s goal is to create good jobs so that the people can earn their living locally. The development of energy potential, especially hydroelectric power and coal, is crucial to the economic future of Sarawak. The availability of energy will provide the main comparative advantage to propel the industrial development in Sarawak.
In an open economy like ours, it is inevitable that a number of Sarawakians have opted to work abroad in search of better life; it is a natural privilege of people living in an open economy and society. Besides, a number of them have been trained overseas and seen another way of living.
Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is also the Minister Finance and Resource Planning and Environment, in his speech in winding the debate on Budget 2012 in Dewan Undangan Negeri, reaffirms the State’s commitment to develop SCORE so that Sarawakians can earn high income locally. Therefore, it is paramount that ways and means must be found to ensure that development projects are properly funded. The successful development of SCORE will yield high economic growth for Malaysia, the state in particular, as it will create new avenues for growth and employment and not dependent on past performance. The development of SCORE entails the development of energy, industries and manpower development.
He says the development strategy during the past 20 years has seen significant change in the economic structure of the State. The shares of professional and technical workers rose from 5.2% in 1980 to 13.3% in 2010 in spite of increase in population. This means that the number of professionals and technical workers employed in Sarawak rose from 23,800 people in the year 1980 to 165,000 people in the year 2010.
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| Bintulu LNG |
He says the structural change in the economy implies a significant change in the skillset and mindset required for the transformation to take place. The labor market is fluid especially in the current globalize world with the internet, advance communication and low budget air travel. The mobility of Sarawakians around the world is a good sign that they are capable of quick adaptation to changes in the modern world. Therefore, it is inevitable that Sarawak must transform the economy and society further through SCORE.
Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the development of Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone, which employs a total of 9,479 people, is a success story. A total of 98.8% of its employments are locals comprising of 729 engineers, 246 other professional staffs in accounts and legal matters. There are 1,901 non-engineering technical staffs while 5,825 are operators and 663 administrative staffs. This is typical of high tech industries with the proportion of unskilled labor normally very low. Obviously, Sama Jaya industrial development can bring about good jobs for young people.
He says the State government recently commissioned UNIMAS to conduct a study on manpower requirements in Sarawak, the value chain of each of the ten (10) priority industries in particular. Projections of manpower demand are made using a quantitative economic module with assumption of different stages of investment growth. The UNIMAS manpower study concludes that the manpower requirements in term of the number of people are fairly modest in the next five years up to 2015. The 10 priority industries in SCORE will generate about 58,200 new jobs in the first five years to 2015.
This means about 11,600 new jobs should be created each year with 620 being professionals and 1,700 semi professionals. There will be 700 workers in support groups and 8,600 as general workers. Professionals are those with university degrees while semi professionals have Diplomas and Certificates in technical skills. The number of jobs to be created for professionals will rise further to about 980 people each year after 2015.
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| Bintulu Port |
There will be 1,130 professional jobs by the 2025 and 1,620 professional jobs by the year 2030. The study estimates that the local labor force will rise to about 1.1 million by the year 2015. The labor force will cumulatively have 226,000 professionals and semi professionals working by then. By the year 2030, the labor force will rise to 2.2 million, which will comprise of 50,000 professionals and 318,000 semi professionals. In other words, nearly half a million jobs will be for professionals and non-professionals.
Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says a survey being conducted recently among companies investing at Samalaju Industrial Park indicates that at the construction stage alone is about 17,200 construction workers in six plants. The average is nearly 3,000 workers per Plant. When the plants start to operate, they will immediately require about 8,700 office and factory workers and an average of 1,200 professionals and semi professionals per plant.
Understandably, there is concern that the State may be building too many hydro dams and other power generation plants. The concern may be born out of the apparent boldness of a long-term development plan that stretches for more than 20 years up to year 2030. However, the big plan should be visualized into components of five different periods. The immediate actions of the plans are practical and the State can undertake heavier challenges as the people gather more knowledge and experience in implementing each phase of the plan.
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| Palm Oil Plantation |
Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the State government, at the moment, is building Murum dam only. It seems comparatively easier when compared with Bakun as the State government has better experience and understanding of all the problems involved. The development of other dams will go through the due process especially the social environmental impact assessment (SEIA) to ensure that each of them will be carried out in a manner that complies with international standard and is satisfactory to all stakeholders including people, who will be affected by their development.
The State government conducts the Social Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) in line with the equatorial principles to ensure affected communities will be properly resettled and compensated. The resettlement exercise provides the government with opportunities to eradicate poverty and create new rural growth centers for the people. There are international standards to follow to ensure that the resettlement will truly bring about an improvement in the lives of the people.
benuasains
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