KUCHING, July 17: Sarawak ranked third in terms of attracting investments in the country last year, with 20 projects worth RM10.5 billion, said Minister of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
Top spot went to Johor with RM21.9 billion in investments, followed by Penang (RM10.8 billion).
He told the august House that last year, under the Industrial Coordination Act 1975 (ICA), the RM10.5 billion investments approved were mainly from three major sectors: petroleum related products (liquefied natural gas) worth RM9.3 billion, non-metallic mineral products worth RM700.7 million (cement) and electronics and electrical products (solar silicon ingots) worth RM300 million.
These projects are expected to create about 750 employment opportunities in the state.
Awang Tengah added that for the same year, the State Industrial Coordination Committee (ICC) had also approved 44 projects totalling RM260 million, mainly in services (warehouse, transportation and logistics), food manufacturing (ice plant, frozen goods, sauce, etc.), non-metallic mineral products (concrete poles, marble, granite and natural stone products), basic metal products, transport equipment products and wood and wood-based products.
These investments are expected to create about 1,200 employment opportunities in the state.
“As at June 2018, the ICC has approved four ICA projects totalling RM2.28 billion (electronic and electrical products, basic metal products, wood and wood-based products and non-metallic mineral products).
“These projects are expected to create about 320 employment opportunities in the state,” said Awang Tengah in his winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) today.
He added that for the same period, the State ICC had also approved eight ICC projects totalling RM75.75 million mainly in services, wood and wood-based products, HDPE products and furniture. Five projects worth RM65 million are still under consideration.
These investments are expected to create about 310 employment opportunities.
Awang Tengah also revealed that to date, the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score) had successfully attracted a total investment of RM33.64 billion, which does not include the proposed RM17 billion steel project and RM6 billion methanol project that were still at the evaluation stage.
“Consequently, the boundary of Score is now being enlarged from 7.07 million hectares (7,070,900 ha) to 10.4 million hectares (10,414,239 ha) to cover new areas in Miri and Limbang Divisions.
Meanwhile, Awang Tengah revealed that the establishment of Sama Jaya High Tech Park in Kuching had resulted in a successful and thriving electronics and electrical cluster in Sarawak, with total investments valued at more than RM12 billion.
“Sama Jaya has a very high percentage of Sarawakians in its workforce of 10,850, of which 99 per cent or 10,705 are locals,” he said. — DayakDaily
