Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (Sedia), a one-stop agency to drive the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC), is going all out to attract investments to further spur the second phase development of SDC.Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said towards this end, Sedia had participated in state-sponsored and Ministry of International Trade and Industry/Malaysian Investment Development Authority-led investment and trade missions locally and abroad.
"The responses from these missions were encouraging, stirring significant interests and drawing substantial investment in the sectors promoted under the SDC and those outlined under the Halatuju Agenda - tourism, agriculture and manufacturing," he said, in his opening address at the 13th meeting of members of the authority, Monday.
Musa, who is also Chairman of Sedia, said the agency would also actively promote small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially Bumiputera entrepreneurs.
He said Sedia was working with Teraju (Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera) to boost participation of Bumiputera entrepreneurs, and a secretariat had been set up at the SEDIA office for this purpose.
The secretariat would provide much-needed access to the facilitation fund for Bumiputera entrepreneurs, and the Teras programme under Teraju, he said.
In this respect, Musa said, Teraju has allocated RM100 million for Bumiputera entrepreneurs in Sabah.
"Sedia has also signed a memorandum of understanding with SME Bank with the aim of assisting SMEs involved in economic activities within SDC, creating access to much needed funding," he said.
In addition, he said, Sedia had organised courses at the Sabah Agro-Industrial Precinct, to encourage agro-businesses on various business opportunities in the sector, including pharma-herbs, bird nest farming and processing, agro-organic and agro-food industries, and bio-science and biotechnology.
Musa said Sedia has taken measures to address human capital requirements of investors, and had also been in talks with local and foreign institutes of higher learning to participate in human capital development programmes in Sabah, especially at the Sandakan Education Hub.
He said the establishment of the Eastern Sabah Security Command and the Eastern Sabah Security Zone were proof of immediate steps that were taken recently in order to beef up security in Sabah.
Musa also pleased to highlight that Sedia received a total of RM1.506 billion from allocations under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) and Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP) projects, and out of this, 84 per cent or RM1.264 billion had been spent.
He also expressed gratitude to the Federal government for its generous allocation for SDC projects under both the 9MP and 10MP, which helped increase the pace of development in Sabah.
"I am also pleased to note that since the launch of SDC in 2008, the poverty rate in Sabah had gone down from 19.7 per cent in 2009 to 8.1 per cent in 2012.
"In terms of investment performance, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) announced in February 2013 that the SDC recorded RM5 billion in investment in the manufacturing sector, the highest among the five corridors in Malaysia for the year 2012," he said.
