Putatan: Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin suggested that the Sabah Fisheries Marketing Sdn Bhd (Safma) relocate here to make way for more visitor-friendly facilities in the city.Kota Kinabalu, he said, has become overcrowded and is becoming unsuitable for Safma to stay at its current location, which it has occupied since the 80s.
With the relocation, the area can be developed to be friendlier for visitors, in the form of esplanades and hotels, Yahya said.
"Because of the city's location facing beautiful islands, the current Safma location can be developed by the State to be better suited to the surrounding area," he added.
Relocating to Putatan will not be much of a problem because of its proximity with the city centre and the waters around the suggested area is deep enough for Safma to conduct its activities, Yahya explained.
"As it is still in the planning stages, the cost of the project is yet to be determined," he said to the press after officiating at a fishing equipment handing-over under the Putatan Parliamentary Agriculture Project at the District Office, here, Wednesday.
Yahya hoped with the relocation, Safma would be able to turn the area into a tourist hot spot, citing as example Fremantle in Australia which is a tourist precinct, specialising in the selling of seafood and fishery products.
During his speech earlier, he touched on how people should change their spending habits and save.
"With current price increases especially in fuel prices, it is imperative that the people be frugal in their spending and save, which can help us out in the future in emergency situations," Yahya said.
The Government has established the Parliamentary Agricultural Development Council (PADC) to help the people while reducing any shortcomings occurring at the grassroots level, he said.
However, he reminded recipients of the fishing equipment to work harder so they can improve and advance further in the fishing industry.
Also at hand were Putatan District Officer, Ag Abd Ghani Pg Yusoff and Malaysian Fisheries Development Authority (MFDA) Director, Jamaludin Othman.
