KUCHING, April 4: Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen, expressed his disappointment over the absence of Sarawakian businesses in Prime Minister Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim’s entourage during his recent visit to China, which saw memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth RM170 billion signed between businesses in China and Malaysia.
In a press statement issued today, Chong said the Sarawak government should proactively engage with local entrepreneurs and businesses to participate in the Malaysia-China economic cooperation initiated by the Federal government.
“Of the 19 signatories from Malaysia, it was regrettable that none were from Sarawak. The Sarawak government, by not proactively participating in the prime minister’s visit and not ensuring that local Sarawak businesses participated in the trade contingent, was not doing the Sarawak business community a favour.
“With Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) promoting its ‘Sarawak First’ slogan, it would do the business community no benefits with SUPP’s attitude of dissociating itself and the Sarawak business community from federal policies and initiatives.
“Such parochial attitude of the SUPP will make Sarawak’s business sector fall further behind our counterparts in Peninsular Malaysia,” he said.
Chong, who is Padungan assemblyman and Stampin MP, said Anwar did the right thing by spearheading intergovernmental and economic cooperation between Malaysia and China, which paved the way for more economic cooperation between both countries.
He said it would be unwise for the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government not to take advantage of such initiatives and opportunities, describing the absence of Sarawakian business during the visit as “a missed opportunity”.
“With the presence of GPS’ five ministers and six deputy ministers in the Federal government, more should be done to uplift Sarawak’s economy and generate more job opportunities.
“I, therefore, call upon the GPS government to make more effort to ensure that our business community can tap into the opportunities opened up by our prime minister’s visit,” he said. — DayakDaily
