Published on: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 |
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said it is still too early to gauge the effect of the state delegation's visit to Japan recently particularly on the amount of investment and areas that would be exploited by the Japanese investors.
However, he said the government is confident that there would be substantial investment (coming from the region) in the future.
"Hence, the government through the relevant ministries, departments and agencies, would discuss and assist Japanese investors who are keen to invest in Sabah," he said at the 12th State Legislative Assembly, here, Monday.
He said there are several areas namely in Lahad Datu and Sandakan that have been identified suitable for Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) where currently the site and infrastructure is actively being prepared and upgraded.
Earlier, Musa, who is also Finance Minister, said the six-day visit to Japan, from July 4-10 was on official invitation from the Japanese Government.
The purpose, he said was to identify and learn the methods in various fields such as technology, infrastructure development, human resource development, agriculture and environment conservation, among others.
"The visit, in general, has been very educational and informative, apart from strengthening the relations between Sabah and Japan," he said.
He said the delegation had the opportunity to meet and conduct a dialogue with the Commerce and Industrial Chambers of Tokyo and Osaka.
Musa said they also visited several factories such as Yanmar, a manufacturer of various engines, wood-based industry Koshii and Inax Corporation, a manufacturer of premium standard sanitary wares.
"We also visited the Asean-Japan Centre and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)," he said.
He said the technical assistance in environmental conservation it provides to Sabah through the Bornean Biodiversity and Ecosystem Conservation (BBEC) programme is certainly very welcomed.
Such effort, he said is helpful to enhance conservation effort and complements the economic development.
Once of the biggest achievement by the BBEC is the conservation of the 2,500 hectares of land in Lower Segama.
Musa said the State Government would also continue to cooperate with Koshii Co. Ltd in the reforestation fields such as planting of Acacia Mangium Hybrid trees in order to supply the wood and furniture based industry. He said a discussion over the possibility of a cooperation with JICA and the State Government to improve the sewage management as well as technical cooperation to assist the state in socio-economy development was also held. The discussion was complemented with a visit to the Ariake Waste Water Treatment Plant in Ariake, Tokyo and Panasonic High Tech Products Centre (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.
"The visit to the Yanmar R & D Centre, has given us valuable information particularly on Palm Oil Biomass that is used to produce Biofuel or biodiesel, which is cheaper than petroleum," he said. Musa said Yanmar seemed interested to introduce the technology to Sabah and that the state welcomes them since Sabah is the largest producer of oil palm in Malaysia. "We would always welcome foreign direct investment in various fields such as oil palm-based industry and biomass including 'Malaysia (Sabah) My Second Home' tourism and cattle rearing to produce Kobe beef-standard meat," he said.
He said he also had the opportunity to introduce Sabah tourism products such as Maliau Basin, Danum Valley and Sabah World Heritage Site, Mount Kinabalu, among others.
He expressed confidence that the Japanese would continue to come to Sabah not only as tourists but also as investors in the future.
