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Kota Kinabalu: Investors are sharing POIC Sabah’s vision of Lahad Datu becoming a growth catalyst and its growing importance in East Asean, said POIC Sabah Chief Executive Officer Datuk Fredian Gan.

This, he said, is evident through three agreements signed at the POIC Industrial Park in Lahad Datu (POIC Lahad Datu) this week.

Witnessed by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor who was on an official visit, the agreements covered land sale, land lease and bulking tank.

“It is a good sign that we are slowly getting over the impact of Covid-19,” he said in a statement, Friday. The signings added to some RM3 billion investments by 55 investors since the industrial park started in 2005.

Locally registered Bumi Teraju Sdn Bhd signed for the lease of 2.57 acres for the manufacturing of organic fertilisers. It involves an investment value of RM18 million, with the potential creation of 60 jobs.

The factory, expected to begin production in 2023, has a capacity for 18-20k metric tonnes per year. It will join the existing 11 fertiliser factories in the iconic fertiliser cluster at POIC Lahad Datu. This current fertiliser cluster combines for annual capacity exceeding 1.3MT and can potentially capture the demand of a burgeoning plantation industry and agriculture in the region.

Another company which signed an agreement was Gamalux Oils Sdn Bhd, which has an existing plant at POIC Lahad Datu involving extracting residue palm oil from spent bleaching earth (SBE). The company has bought three acres for their additional manufacturing complex consisting of a new oleo-chemical plant. In total, Gamalux invested 11.1 acres in POIC with an expected new job creation of 120.

Listed plantation company KL-Kepong (Sabah) Sdn Bhd, which has a palm oil processing plant located close to POIC Lahad Datu, signed up as one of the first users of POIC Lahad Datu’s bulking installation.

Hajiji officiated the operationalisation of the bulking installation on Sept 5. The facility has tanks sufficient to store up to 20,000 metric tonnes of palm oil. With POIC liquid cargo terminal nearby, linked by pipes to the storage tanks, the bulking installation is a facility that complement exporters and importers of palm oil and palm oil-based products. Meanwhile, Gan said POIC Lahad Datu is attracting wider and renewed interest with its narrative of the industrial park and the East Coast could be the catalyst for economic growth in Sabah and East Asean. “Bimp-Eaga is now very much in our conversation and we are talking about air and sea connectivity, using POIC Lahad Datu as an amalgamation point for Bimp-Eaga’s raw materials, and as a manufacturing and transhipment hub.

“There is growing interest in us from Eaga territories such as Celebes, Palawan, Tawi-Tawi and Mindanao ARMM (Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao), and we are talking with the Bimp-Eaga Business Council, the Sabah-China Chamber of Commerce, the Malaysia-China Business Council (MCBC) and others to highlight our potentials and bring in investors,” he said.

POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd, the holding company of POIC Lahad Datu, recently received trade delegation from Palawan and a second round of discussions with top officials of the MCBC in Kota Kinabalu.