By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, April 28: Deputy Premier of Sarawak Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan has led a Sarawak government delegation to Stockholm, Sweden, this week to promote Sarawak as an investment destination for investors.
According to a press release, the two-day working visit also aimed at exploring areas for collaboration on forest management, plantation and technology to process planted timber species.
Additionally, the trip was to reciprocate the invitation extended by the Swedish Minister for International Development Corporation, Johan Forssell, during their previous meeting last year.
During the trip, the Sarawak delegation had a meeting with the Swedish State Secretary to the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure, Dan Ericsson.
There, Awang Tengah expressed that Sarawak recognised Sweden’s success in the field of forest management, forest plantation, and forest-based downstream industry and would like to foster collaboration on how to further optimise the economic benefits of the forestry sector in Sarawak.
“This is proven through the annual log production of about 80 million cubic metres of logs from their forest.
“The forestry sector in Sweden has an excellent support ecosystem that promotes continuous innovation from other sectors, such as machinery for timber transportation, harvesting, and processing.
“In addition, the application of digital technology has been widely used to enhance efficiency in data management for the forestry sector,” the press release read.
Awang Tengah also hoped that Sweden and Sarawak could initiate collaborations between agencies and private sectors in areas like forest management, digital technology application, human capital development and timber processing.
At the same time, the delegation was briefed on Swedish Forest Industries’ Road To The Future policy, whereby by 2040, the forest industry’s climate change benefit shall increase by 30 per cent, wood-based products shall be fossil-free and recyclable, and Sweden shall have flourishing forest rich in biodiversity.
Later, Awang Tengah had a meeting with the Forest Department and the Swedish Forest Agency to understand the overview of forest management policy and practices in Sweden.
About half of the 28 million hectares of forest in Sweden is owned and managed by private entities. Forest management is governed by the national forest policies, which the Swedish Forest Agencies regulate.
To support the forestry sector, Sweden promotes research and innovation in six key areas: forest tree breeding, the value chain for circular bio-economy, efficient operational systems, silviculture for different goals, opportunities for digitalisation, and social benefits.
In this regard, Sarawak, through the Forest Department, would like to collaborate with Sweden on tree breeding to support the aspiration of producing high-quality seedlings for forest plantations. This is crucial to support the aspiration to improve the current yield of forest plantations in Sarawak.
Joining Awang Tengah for the working visit were Swedish Ambassador to Malaysia, Dr Joachim Bengstrom; Deputy Minister for Urban Planning, Land Administration and Natural Resources Datuk Len Talif Salleh; Ministry of International Trade, Industry and Investment (MINTRED) advisor Dato Sri Mohd Naroden Majais; Sarawak Forestry Department director Datu Hamden Mohammad; MINTRED permanent secretary Dzulkornain Masron; Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) general manager Zainal Abidin Abdullah; STIDC advisor Datu Hashim Bojet; Invest Sarawak chief executive officer Timothy Ong; Sarawak Planted Forest Sdn Bhd general manager Paul Valentine; and PUSAKA Capital Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Mohd Nor Topek Julaihi. — DayakDaily
