Sabah needs industrial parks
Published on: Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah has many untapped opportunities for investments in new growth areas, said International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Dr Ong Kian Ming (pic). He said each region in Malaysia is unique in its comparative and competitive advantages and for Sabah, its abundance of natural and agricultural resources has long made the State a base for industrial development."Building these strengths, there are many untapped opportunities for resource-based manufacturing facilities, particularly in moving downstream and producing high quality goods and services," he said in his keynote address at the Industrial Park Forum themed "Strengthening the Manufacturing Ecosystem" at the Marriott Hotel, here, Monday.
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Ong, who also officiated the one-day forum organised by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) and the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM), said having the upstream and downstream industry players in close proximity improves speed and cost of production."I am very confident that this platform will be beneficial towards promoting a holistic approach for the development and management of industrial parks in Sabah."This is a very important process in terms of increasing the level of manufacturing activities in Sabah which currently is one of the lowest in Malaysia at less than 10 per cent," he said. He said as Malaysia is moving to a new phase of development, hence, the government needs to attract quality investments that can translate to more opportunities for higher income jobs and transfer of technology to the people.
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"Having been to the industrial parks in many states of peninsular Malaysia, it is clear that we have to improve our industrial park facilities to cater to new demands and capture new market segments. "This includes high speed broadband and other initiatives that we will be announcing next year as part of the 2019 Budget to improve these facilities," he said.
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He said for Sabah, to attract the type of quality investments that we desire, the State needs good industrial parks that can meet the requirements of these industries.He said it is important to find win-win solutions, and not to keep investors waiting for infrastructure to be built especially in the provision of electricity, water and roads, as these are the basic infrastructure needs for any industry to operate. "I urge technical agencies and utility providers such as Telekom Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional Berhad and Gas Malaysia to come on board and be proactive in supporting investors in these areas," he said. Also present was Mida Senior Executive Director Zabidi Mahdar who pointed out that Sabah is certainly one of Malaysia's destinations for investment. "Following our 'Invest Sabah' briefing held at the Mida headquarters in October, we received encouraging interest," he said.He noted that there are 12 eager investors from nine companies flying into Sabah to explore for themselves the opportunities available in the areas of oil and gas, logistics, engineering services, infrastructure development and consulting services, for their expansion plans. A statement issued by Mida here stated that as at December last year, a total of 761 manufacturing projects with investments worth RM15.1 billion have been implemented in Sabah.More than 90,000 jobs have been created from these projects particularly in the food manufacturing, paper, printing and publishing, wood and wood products, chemical and chemical products and non-metallic mineral products sectors.For the first nine months of 2018, Sabah continued to attract additional approved investments of RM140.9 million, mainly in basic metal products, food manufacturing, petroleum products including petrochemicals and non-metallic mineral products. Meanwhile, the forum was attended by some 250 participants from various fields, including business chambers, local authorities, park developers and managers.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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