Sarawak as a region needs bigger allocation for development

Obviously, the opposition, in dismissing the potential of Sarawak to become the richest State in the country by theyear 2030, is ignorant of the fact that the State government has a concreteplan to achieve the desired objective.

Admittedly, Sarawak,at this stage on development, is like Peninsula Malaysia in the 90s in terms ofinfrastructure development like building of roads, bridges, ports and airports.The state only started development in 1963 and has to run faster in order tocatch up with the development and progress of Peninsular Malaysia.  The special allocation of RM4 billion forinfrastructure development in the beginning of 2011 from the Federal Governmentshould be able to push further the development by year 2013.  

But, it is still notjustifiable for the opposition, which has only been making hot air andrhetoric, to condemn Sarawak as the fourthpoorest state in the country and that its development is being donehaphazardly. 

Both DAP and PKR, incriticizing Barisan Nasional - led State government, conveniently ignore thefact that Sarawak, is about 94% of the totalsize of Peninsular Malaysia but with a small population of 2.6 million or 10%of the population of the latter; some districts or parliamentary constituenciesare bigger than most states there. 

FAMILARISATION TOUR: Dato Aloysius Dris leading the media group and Azam members to the Tokuyama plant. (Borneo Post Photo)

The opposition willdo more good, if apart from making sharp criticisms of Barisan Nasional at thestate level, to drive home the points at the Federal level that Sarawak cannotbe treated just as a state in the Federation but a region that needs muchbigger allocation for development.  

Sarawak has a total landsize of more than 125,000 square KMs with 11 administrative divisions, 31districts and 28 sub-districts. The small population is scattered over morethan 5,000 settlements, comprising of longhouses, bazaars and traditionalvillages, with distances of anything from 10 to 45 KM apart. And 60% of thesettlements each have less than 50 families only. The demographic pattern isalready a real challenge in development.

As the opposition has no experience in developing Sarawak and has no credibility to talk about its progressand development, the comments and criticisms should only be taken as a pin ofsalt. Understandably, the opposition, being urban bias, boasts of itscapability to develop double highways to major towns and cities throughout theState in less than five years. 

But what about developing a good network of roads to connectthe longhouses in the hinterlands of Ulu Kapit, Ulu Baram and Ulu Limbang andthe traditional Kampung along the coastal areas to major towns or cities?  Even places like Marudi, Long Lama, Kapit,Belaga and Tunoh, with huge potential of economic growth, have been bidding forroads to be constructed to connect them to growth centres.

DAP has pledged to scrap SCORE, which it claims to be anunnecessary burden to the people.  But itfails to give the alternative plan to bring development to the hinterlands ofKapit, Baram and Ulu Limbang, which constitute the region in the middle of Sarawak that is still under-developed as compared tothose in Miri in the North and Kuching in the South.  

Of course, the State government, unlike the opposition, hasthe concrete plan to develop Sarawak, throughSCORE, to achieve the desired goal. The response from investors to developheavy industries has been very good.  Itis projected  that Sarawak will be ableto secure more than RM30 billion worth of foreign investment to develop heavyindustries in SCORE development area in the next few years.

Engkabang nursery at SITC, Tatau

Now it has to copewith the demands for more electricity by potential investors to set up heavyindustries towards the year 2020. At the moment Sarawak Electricity Board (SEB)has the capacity to generate more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity from1,000 megawatts during the last 50 years.

The development of Halal hub in Tanjung Manis is progressingwell. It requires more people to do life sciences and research.  The development of hydro dams will createlakes and lots of islands in each of them.  They will make the development of eco-tourismfeasible in areas, which used to be in the middle of nowhere, for the benefitsof the local people. 

Generally, the development of Sarawak in the next 20 yearswill be beyond the imagination of even the present generation of Malaysians in Sarawak.  Sarawakhas the real potential to become the richest state in the whole of Malaysia.  However, the success hinges on thesteadfastness of the people comprising of various ethnic and religious groupsin preserving unity and co-operation among them.

They must not make issues merely to score political capitaland ruin the prospects of Sarawak to developfast. It is the only way to guarantee success in the pursuit of the commonstruggle to push the State far ahead towards the year 2030 and beyond. The factremains Sarawak, once in the backwater lane ofdevelopment is emerging as the fastest developing state in the country. 

Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, in hisrecent speech, during the Chinese New Year gathering organized by thefederation of Chinese associations in Miri, says Sarawakis on the right track towards becoming the most prosperous state in the countrytowards the year 2030. Every community must be involved in the process. Thepeople, regardless of their ethnic origins, must remain focused in whateverthey do in order to achieve results. 

When he told the Prime Minister about the State’s ambitionto become the richest state, the latter assured him if it could be done theFederal government would give all the support. The State government, with the experience to undertake very difficulttasks to push development during the past 50 years, should be able to do soprovided the people, comprising of the  Chinese, Ibans, Bidayuhs, Malays, Orang Ulusand others can continue to work together toward achieving the common aim. Thatis the foundation of how Sarawak can grow towardsthe year 2030 and beyond.

Coal-fired generating station at Matadeng, Mukah

Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says Sarawakis making conscientious efforts to develop technical education with the targetto produce more than 100,000 graduates and other kinds of technical people bythe year 2030.   The standard of learningamong Sarawakians has gone up.  His onlyinterest is to get the local people to be trained regardless of theirbackgrounds.

Besides, a ¼ million more people will undergo training atthe certificate level. The State government has no choice but to recruit youngpeople from rural areas to acquire all the skills.  Generally, the youth from longhouses learn todo things fast as proof by their ability to work in logging camps or factories.They can even work in factories using new technology. That is the uniquecharacteristics of youth from rural areas.  

Pehin Sri Abdul Taib reaffirms his belief that the peoplecomprising of about 30 ethnic and sub-ethnic groups, each with its own customsand traditions and other backgrounds, share the same future; it cannot be separated.In this respect, any movement, social or political cannot get one race toco-operate at the expense of other races.

He calls on Chinese leaders to work conscientiously tostrengthen the solidarity of the community. They should put their politicaldifferences aside to ensure that they remain united and provide avenues formembers to solve problems together with other races.  The State or the country no longer has anythinglike in the old days. Besides, the State or country will use to the full thetalents that the people can produce in pursuit of greater progress anddevelopment towards the year 2020 and beyond.

benuasains

 

 *Source:

google.com

Public, private sector must have nerve to resist unnecessary pressures from developed nations

The development of heavy industries in Sarawak Corridor ofRenewable Energy or SCORE actually brings Sarawakto become nothing less than a developed State in nature. Generally, the Stateis embarking on the era of massive industrial development, with SCORE as theshowpiece, which will be introducing hi-tech industrial program. The State willbe engaged in food production using biotechnology and the generation of sufficientenergy at reasonable costs to cater for energy intensive industries.

Admittedly, thedevelopment of hydro dams to generate electricity requires huge investments. Itentails construction of roads, numerous bridges, ports and airports and otherinfrastructural facilities. Works to construct roads to each hydro dam sites inthe interior parts of Kapit, Ulu Baram or Ulu Limbang have to cut across hillsor mountains, deep ravines and rivers; the construction of roads alone requireshuge investments. 

Understandably, theresponse from world industry players has been very positive.  More big firms, which will use huge amount ofenergy for their plants or factories, have expressed their interests to set upindustries in Sarawak.  That means Sarawakhas to develop more hydro dams to generate electricity that can be charged atreasonable costs to consumers. It has already embarked on a series of programsto generate more than 20,000 megawatts of electricity by the year 2030. 

Basically, Sarawak has to deal with the world, which is exacting inits judgment. It expects the State to conform to many standards andrequirements.  Some of the changes orvalues are advocated by groups of people ranging from very conservative people,who say the world today is the mixture of stability and progress while someradical groups see the world as opportunities to transform it into the idea ofUtopia.  This by itself already posesquite a lot of challenges and even conflicts all over the world.  The people who suffer the most are those indeveloping countries like ours.  

View of Samalaju Industrial Park

Unavoidably, Sarawak has to conform to the standards which have beenevolved by developed countries over at least 200 years starting from theindustrial revolution. Generally, developing countries like ours are expectedto work out the transformation in lesser time than developed nations.   Therefore, to apply some of the so-calledvalues or benchmarks in the local situation or in national setting can bring alot of challenges or even controversies to us. 

For example, thehigh polluting values being determined by developed nations whether in the areaof environment, human right, freedom and democracy, climate change can actuallyimpede the development of developing countries. Besides, they do not spell outhow the objectives can be achieved within the limitations of the localsituation.  

Agreeably, commonefforts to slow down degradation of the environment and the impact of climatechange are sound ideas with very valuable aims but developing countries are yetto be told how they can be achieved within their own constraints orlimitations.  

Therefore, the jobsof the both the public and private sectors, as part of changes, are to make thetransformation more practical and adaptation to changes, successful. They mayconsider amending some of the exacting demands that have not been surged bypractical experience worldwide. 

Needless to say Sarawak must follow the economics system that has beendeveloped by developed countries for a long time since World War Two.Admittedly, the system has benefitted the State too. However, it mustanticipate that future changes will escalate; they will not change in a steadymanner. 

The third componentof SCORE is the development of eco-tourism, which will be easier to developwith the construction of all-season roads to hydro dams sites deep in theinteriors of Kapit, Baram and Ulu Limbang towards the year 2020 andbeyond.  

The development ofinfrastructure for eco-tourism will also involve the development of the Penans,who still have about 500 of them leading their traditional nomadic way of lifeand roaming over a wide region of Ulu Baram and Ulu Limbang. Unavoidably, thedevelopment of the Penans, to ensure that they will not be bypassed in the newphase of development, will touch on the big human question that must be handledin a very sophisticated way; there will be lots of “advices” from both insideand outside the country.  

Basically, Sarawak is in the stage of development that it has to plungeinto the world context of development. It cannot be isolated any more.Admittedly, it will be a big challenge, which Sarawakmust see as an opportunity to move further upward in the migration from mediumto the high income economy towards the year 2020 and beyond. It must anticipatecomplex problems that will emerge from time to time because of continuouschanges in the world.

But for Sarawak to be in the global economy, it cannot be donewithout the civil service being able to understand global economicactivities.  Therefore, the civil serviceas the precursor of any development must be knowledgeable of suchactivities.  Besides, the members must beable to look at NGOs with different eyes and choose the good ones that arerelevant to development as allies. 

Ultimately, themembers must have the ability to develop independent assessment of standardsthat are relevant to the overall development or environmental policies.  Sarawak mustlearn from experiences of some countries in getting along with all kinds ofmovements.  

Tokuyama Plant in Samalaju

Obviously, the newchallenges of development require the Civil Service to do much more than thetraditional functions to look after the welfare, peace and unity of the peoplein the country.  The members, who used tobe bound within the old context, must do the jobs of the new Sarawak, thetechnologically entrenched Sarawak from nowonward. 

Besides, the civilservice must be able to come up with the standards that are practical to thelocal situation but compatible with those of the world. Obviously, they mustdedicate themselves to the advancement not only of the country but the world inadvent of climate change.  All of us havethe responsibility to save the world because climate change could drowneverybody; nobody wants that kind of picture.

The Chief Minister,Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, in his recent speech during a dialogue withheads of departments says people in the public and private sector must have thenerve in dealing with the world because it is the only way to get theirattention and respect. The developed countries own about 50% of the worldwealth, which they can use to wield their power on developing countries. 

Besides, they canuse NGOs movements to set up tend or create new values that can be used aspressures for developing countries to follow. Hence, developing countries like ours must have nerve to stand up tothem.    Otherwise, they will do allsorts of things against us; demonstrations will increasingly become powerfultools against us.   

Pehin Sri Abdul Taibsays activities of foreign NGOs in exerting pressures on governments ofdeveloping countries can make them appear less powerful especially  if the society is  not united or having no cohesion in it.Worse, if it does not have the process of interchange of views. As aconsequence, the people become isolated and susceptible to negative influencesof unfriendly foreign NGOs. 

He saysconscientious efforts must be made to reinforce the consciousness of people,comprising of diverse ethnic and religious groups about the need to preservethe Independenceand sovereignty of the country in view of concerted efforts by developednations to enforce their high polluting values on developing countries likeours. 

Regrettably, thepeople tend to take many things for granted. They tend to criticize everything to such an extent that oppositionmovements   appear to be more popularthan genuine efforts to bring progress and development to the people andcountry. These are the challenges confronting the society today; nobody canchange the situation overnight. 

Obviously, there isa need to remind the people that there is a need to preserve our unity andstability in the common pursuit for greater progress and prosperity. They mustalso understand that the stability of the country and pursuit for greaterfreedom by the people do not come at the same time; sometimes they go in theopposite directions.  

Pehin Sri Abdul Taibsays Europe today has troublesome groups ofpeople, not in terms individual nations but the governments that do not havewell informed set-ups about other countries, developing countries inparticular. For example in geo-political questions how do they get theirinformation?   Or where do they get theirfacts to assess local situations? 

Besides, how do theyaccess support or opposition to any issues, of a certain country?  Obviously, in the case of the environment,they get their feedback from NGOs, some may be friendly and others, veryunfriendly to developing countries.  Dothey have the distinction between friendly and unfriendly NGOs?  

benuasains

 

 *Source:

http://google.com.my

High polluting values, determined by developed world, make future changes, challenges tougher for developing countries

Sarawak has reached a levelof development when it can push to the level of massive industrial developmentthat plunges it into the world economic system. But for Sarawak to be in the world’spull of modernization, the civil service must understand the working of worldeconomy.  

Obviously, the civil service, as the precursor of anydevelopment, must understand the working of the global economy and be able to lookat NGOs, some may be friendly and some very unfriendly, with differenteyes.  The friendly ones can becomeallies while the unfriendly ones that tend to become big nuisance in whateverthe State has to do to bring development to the people, has to be dealt withdifferently. 

In this respect, the Civil service must be able to developan independent assessment in dealing with NGOs and in determining the standardsthat are relevant for the progress and development of the State and country.  Basically, politicians, who provide theleadership and the public and private sectors, must understand what the worldexpects from the State. 

Generally, the requirements, being determined by developedworld, which dominates global trade and market, are very stringent and relativeefforts must comply with such standards.  Hence, both the public and private sectorsmust endeavor to meet the global requirements and work within suchcontext.   

Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud officiating at the Public Service Assembly Day 2011 and awards presentation at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) last year.

Basically, the State has to deal with the world market, whichis exacting in judgment in trying to get the players to conform with therequirements, which developed countries have evolved at least over 200 yearsstarting from the industrial revolution.   

However, the developed world expects developing countries tocomply with the requirements in lesser time or take much shorter time to workout the transformation.   As aconsequence, the application of the so-called values or benchmarks in the localsituation or even in the national setting brings a lot of challenges.  

For example, high polluting values whether in the area ofenvironment, human rights, freedom and democracy, challenges of climate change,slowing down of the degradation of the environment and others may be sound ideaswith  valuable aims but do not spell themechanism on how they can be achieved within the situation and limitation ofrespective countries.  

Obviously, the high polluting values, being outlined bydeveloped nations, make future changes and challenges tougher for developingcountries like ours.  Therefore, the jobsas part of change, of the Civil Service are to make the transformation morepractical and the process of adaptation, successful.  In this respect, the Civil Service mayconsider amending some of the exacting demands   in order to make them to become more practicalto the local limitations and setting.

Obviously, Sarawak has tofollow the economics system that has been developed by the developed countriesfor a long time since World War Two.  However,the changes are escalating and not changing in a steady manner.

Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, in hiskeynote speech during a gathering to launch the High Performance team buildingprogram of Sarawak Civil Service in Santubong, says the opportunity for Sarawakto become more prosperous, is to develop competitive energy.  Both oil and gas, which hitherto has providedthe sources of income for Sarawak are depleting. 

More importantly, the world is in a situation where it couldonly discover one barrel to replace two barrels of oil that it has to use  In other words, there is a growing deficit ofoil in the world.  The prices have goneup almost to the breaking point of other people’s economy.  Now they are coming up to US110 and somequarters are predicting that they will go up all the way to US200.  

Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the State has to find a source ofenergy as the basis for the economy to become competitive and guaranteed in theworld.   Therefore, the State governmentdecided on the development of the renewable energy as the basis for attractingnew investments to Sarawak in the developmentof heavy industries.  Besides, the world technologyis being developed in such a way that knowledge to manage it can be used bothin developed and developing countries.  

He believes Sarawak canbecome part of the global system and profit from it.  However both the public and private sectorsmust upgrade the capacity starting with the development of technical workers.  The State needs 100,000 people with degree anddiploma qualifications and more than a quarter million technical workers all inone generation.  Hence, the educationsystem must be transformed to become a strong and viable technical education

He says Sarawak will focus onthe training of people on smelting technology to enable them to serve the industriesthat will come up in Samalaju more efficiently.  Besides, it is faster to train people with somedegree of specialization than those pursuing a wider spectrum of technicaltalents, as being done in Peninsular Malaysia, to cater for various industries.

He says as technical training will be more focused in Sarawak, it  has abetter chance to succeed in the development of industries in SCORE developmentarea, in Samalaju in particular. The smelter technology has to be acquired as amatter of priority to produce or process aluminum.  The State will not go all the way to steeljust yet until the aluminum smelting industry can be proven to be successful.The State cannot afford the industry to fail as there is no room for failure. 

He says the State will stick to the processing of aluminum,manganese and felon silicon that will bring it to an intermediate position forindustrialization towards the year 2020 and beyond.  The State will import manganese from South Africa and Australiaand bauxite mainly from Australiato be processed locally.  They will beexported as semi-finished products to world class industries, which be veryexacting in their requirements.  

Samalaju Industrial Park

Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the success of the first phase of thedevelopment of heavy industries will depend on the State’s ability to satisfythe steel makers and aluminum consumers of the world.  All of them require a very high standard ofproducts, which can be done through partnerships, trading and teamwork.   There is no room to do anything less than worldclass jobs.

He says as the State has decided to plunge into the globaleconomy, it is not a gradual entry, both the public and private sectors must dotheir level best in dealing  with the hubof the industries of the world. Basically, the development of heavy industries inSCORE forces the State to become nothing less than the developed country innature.

For example, Halal hub comes from the fact that Sarawak has been successful in estates development toenable it to process large amount of agricultural produce into food and pharmaceuticalproducts.  The agricultural produce willbe processed using advanced technology for the purpose.  

He says the third component of SCORE is eco-tourism. Itsdevelopment and promotion will be made easier with the construction of roads tohydro dam sites deep in the interior of Ulu Kapit and Ulu Baram. Thedevelopment will entail modernizing the Penans and other ethnic groups toensure that they will not be bypassed by the new development.  

He anticipates the emergence of big human questions thatmust be handled carefully by both the public and private sector in thedevelopment of eco-tourism.  With all thechanges and challenges ahead, the basic functions of the administration tomaintain peace and harmony and look after the welfare of the people have to bereadjusted to the changing time. Basically, the civil service must do the jobsof the new Sarawak to be technologicallyentrenched in one generation.

He says the drive for tertiary education during the past 10years experience has enabled the State to escalate the training for the people.  However, conscientious efforts must be madeto preserve the standard that is accepted all over the world.  Generally, there is much more that can beachieved in the next phase of development in education and training. More importantly,preparations must be made to involve the people in the new momentum ofdevelopment towards the year 2020 and beyond.

benuasains

 *Photos Source:

google.com.my

 

Sarawak’s transparency, prudence in financial management are being acknowledged globally

The proposed budget for 2012 for Sarawak, unlike other states, is expected to yield a surplus of RM79 million on the basis of an estimated total revenue of RM4,043 million against a total ordinary expenditure of RM3,964 million.  The latest to propose a deficit budget is Perak. Earlier it was Sabah.

The proposed budget for 2012 for Sarawak is the second under 10^th Malaysia Plan, which is part of the overall Government Transformation Program (GTP) to push the country to become a developed nation by the year 2020. 

It is being formulated with strategies that are consistent with the thrusts of the National Budget with the theme “National Transformation Policy: Welfare for the Rakyat, well-being of the Nation.” 

The National budget focuses on the following:-

• Accelerate Investment;

• Generate Human Capital Excellence, Creativity and Innovation;

• Rural Transformation Program;

• Strengthen the Civil Service; and

• Ease Inflation and Enhance the Well-being of the Rakyat.

The Federal Budget has also included various programs and projects that benefit the Sarawak as follows:  

• Strengthen the development of basic infrastructure and utilities in a more comprehensive manner, which include allocation for village-link road projects, refurbish,  upgrade  and build schools and clinics and expand clean water and electricity supplies to settlements in rural areas; 

• Establish rural transformation centers to integrate services that include collecting, processing and distributing of agricultural products, banking and insurance;

• Develop Samalaju multi-million water supply project; 

• Modernize the supply and value chains in the agriculture sector; 

• Develop efficient transport and logistics system; and

• Develop the quality and skilled manpower.

The State Budget 2012, among others, will focus on the development of SCORE area, increase the value-add of tourism sector particularly MICE market, modernize the agriculture sector and its supply and value chains and develop efficient transport and logistics system and the quality and skilled manpower. 

As the burden of the development, in the past, has fallen heavily on the public sector, the proposed 2012 Budget will facilitate and induce the private sector as the main engine of growth.  It has become increasingly crucial for the private sector, with its enormous resources and manpower, should engage actively in stimulating and spearheading investment for economic development of the economy. 

The Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) has secured 
RM28.55 billion in investments from 2009 to August this year.

Basically, the 2012 Budget will be a development biased budget. About 70% of the total allocation is for development purposes while 30% for operating expenditure. As a developing state, it is imperative for Sarawak to continue with a pro-development budget. More importantly, the management of the budget must be driven by productivity and efficiency. Hence, concerted efforts must continue to be made to optimize the use of available resources and reduce wastages.

The proposed budget continues to give priority to economic activities and productive sectors such as commerce and industry, public utilities, transport and communications, and agriculture and land development.

Understandably, the proposed budget will give special focus to further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the State’s financial management as well as the delivery system; it must keep the operating expenditure under stringent control.

Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, in tabling the budget proposals during the current sitting of the State Legislative Assembly, says the State must spend within its means to ensure sufficient financial reserves to meet future challenges. It is important for Sarawak to continue with the policy of a balanced or surplus budget to ensure that the financial position remains strong and sustainable in the long run. This will also ensure that the State has fiscal flexibility to weather any economic eventuality.

Besides, the State, being an open economy, must adopt sound economic and financial policies as it is susceptible to the global and regional economic volatilities. For example, the continued volatilities in demand for commodities, such as oil and gas, crude palm oil, timber and manufactured goods have direct or indirect effect on the State. However, a healthy level of reserves should be able to provide fiscal flexibility in time of economic difficulties.

Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the State, with a healthy level of reserves, has been able to ride through steadily over a series of global economic crisis in the past decades. The State Government will continue to put in place strategic measures aimed at strengthening the financial management and discipline.  

The Halal Hub is expected to initially attract RM2 billion investment, mainly from the Taiwanese and Middle East investors.When fully developed, it will be the world's largest halal hub covering a total of 47,000 acres.

The halal-based industries will include marine fish farming, bio prawn farming, organic chicken and egg,eel farming, chlorella industries ( green algae) and many others. The site of the Halal Hub is strategically located at the intersection of the roads leading to the coastal towns of Rajang,Jerijeh and Belawai, and only a short 2km from the Tanjung Manis New Township.

Tanjung Manis is poised to become a major industrial town within the next 10 years. 

Currently the major industries are timber based . 

In the near future there will also be heavy investment in 

the fishing and shipbuilding industries.

He says the State has again, for the ninth consecutive years, been accorded a Clean Certificate for its 2010 Public Accounts.  The State has also been reaffirmed with commendable credit ratings from both the international and domestic rating agencies. The track records show that the State Government has conducted financial affairs in a transparent, accountable and prudent manner in line with the applicable rules and regulations.

Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the State’s credit rating position is maintained at investment-grade status in spite of the global financial and economic turmoil that have adversely affected credit standings of some well established rated sovereigns, sub sovereigns and corporate entities around the world.  

Moody’s has affirmed the State’s investment grade credit rating at Baa1 with positive outlook, while Standard & Poors also affirmed the rating at A-with stable outlook. Domestic rating agencies, both Rating Agency Malaysia (RAM) and Malaysian Rating Corporation Berhad (MARC), have also maintained our rating at AAA.

He says the commendable investment grades ratings reflect the strong confidence of the international rating agencies on the State’s sound financial position and effective financial and fiscal management. Nonetheless, the State must strive to ensure the financial position remains sound and the socio-political environment continues to be stable. It is more critical for the State to the sustain the commendable credit ratings in view of efforts to attract direct and indirect investments in a bigger way towards the year 2020 and beyond. 

Samalaju on the plan, expected to accomodate jobs for 50,000 people.

Until now Sarawak is the only State in Malaysia that has been able to place itself to greater scrutiny and review by both the domestic and international rating agencies as well as the international investors. In other words, the State’s ability, integrity, transparency and prudence in financial management are being acknowledged globally. 

Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the world economic growth has weakened as the handover from public to private demand in U.S. economy stalled and the euro area continues to encounter major financial turbulence. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its World Economic Outlook Report, released in September 2011, projects the world economic growth to moderate from 5.1% in 2010 to about 4.0% in 2011. 

He believes the global economic prospect is expected to be more challenging in 2012 with European sovereign debt crisis and the slower world trade expected to dampen growth. For example, IMF has revised downwards the world economic growth for 2012 to 4.0% from their earlier estimates of 4.5% while the world trade to 5.8% from their earlier estimates of 6.9%, a decline of more than 1%. 

Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the State economy is expected to record a favorable growth of 4.5% in 2011. The growth will be underpinned by the sustained expansion of private domestic demand and strong exports of commodities arising from high commodity prices and favorable regional demand. However, the uncertainties in U.S. and Japan and the deepening of debt-sovereign crisis in Europe could have impact on the growth of the State economy. 

He expects inflation to moderate in line with the expected slowdown in the global economy. The government, being sensitive to the plights of the people particularly the impact on the lower income group, has undertaken various measures to cushion them. The rate at the national level is expected to average 3.0% to 3.5% this year. The rate at the state level, in the first half of 2011, was recorded at 2.7% and is expected to remain below 3.0%. 

Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the State Government is always supportive of efforts being taken by the Federal Government to cushion the impacts of inflation on the people, who should also be prudent in their spending habits.  At the same time, local businessmen and industrialists must be more creative, innovative, efficient and productive to ensure that their products are competitive at the global market.

benuasains

 *Photos Source:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com

http://rubberseeds.blogspot.com

http://google.com