By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Jan 21: The new Borneo Cultural Museum is scheduled to open its doors before the middle of this year.
Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts Minister Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said this had been discussed during his recent meeting with the Sarawak Museum Department.
“We are still getting the date from ‘the one’ who is going to officiate it,” he told a press conference held at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) today.
The museum was supposed to be made available to the public at the end of 2020 but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Abdul Karim also said that his ministry had prepared the State’s tourism calendar, but the tourism industry can only flourish when tourists come into the State.
He was optimistic that the number of Covid-19 cases in the State would continue to decline, adding that he hoped the new Omicron variant would not reach the State.
“The number of visitors as of Dec 2021 compared to Dec 2020 has shot up by more than 500 per cent so you can see that people are coming into the State.
“Therefore, we are slowly going back to our normal number of visitors into the State,” he added.
He also wished to see the State’s international music events such as Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), Borneo Jazz Festival (BJF), and Miri Country Music Fest (MCMF) to be held physically this year.
“However, this will depend on how the Covid-19 situation will be for the next one or two months.
“If things are okay, we will proceed (organising the events physically), but we will set up a committee to get (the events) going,” he emphasised. ― DayakDaily
