How long must Labuanites wait for the promised bridge?
Published on: Sunday, March 03, 2019
By: Avtar Singh
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It has reduced the journey time to Sarawak to a mere 20 minutes by car and made accessibility to the Sabah border significantly shorter and faster by vehicle.
But more importantly, what it has done is given Brunei tourism a massive boost as people from both Sabah and Sarawak can now get into Brunei in a significantly shorter period of time, meaning increased tourism visitors and greater spending in the city centre and country as well as the development and growth of new new tourism activities and initiatives that will help create jobs and improve lives for all.
The Brunei Government looked at the problems associated with declining oil prices and the need to focus on developing tourism in the country, something that they had been trying for many years to do without as much success as they had hoped until the idea came to build this viaduct which has now been seen to be an important bridge that can spur tourism development and improve business and logistical connectivity and will see costs reduced significantly getting goods into Brunei from Sabah and Sarawak.
According to Patrick Cooke, a regional editor at the Oxford Business Group, “the bridge is part of the sultanate’s efforts to diversify the economy and end over-reliance on hydrocarbons (and it is) hoped that the bridge will open the region up to further international tourism and investment.”
By 2020, the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism hopes to have increased tourist arrivals in Brunei from 218,000 in 2015 to 450,000 by 2020, under its 2016-2020 Strategic Plan and opens up the Temburong district to greater economic opportunities for the future. However, the Brunei Government is taking steps to make sure the new bridge creates economic opportunities without sacrificing the area’s natural beauty.
Fahim Ibrahim, the vice president of Brunei-based environmental NGO Biodiversity and Natural History Society, said that it is important to remember that the bridge will do more than simply facilitate tourism.”The bridge is key to connecting Brunei — it’s opening up two different communities in Brunei and bringing us together as a nation for the first time,” says Ibrahim.
Unlike Brunei who are ramping up their economy and looking at ways on how to uplift the Brunei economy during a very difficult time with the unstable oil and gas prices globally, Labuan Island is still lagging behind the nation economically and socially. Thus far, the new Federal Government refuses to commit to building a new bridge linking Labuan Island to the mainland of Sabah and refuses to give any clear blue print how it plans on boosting the island’s economy for the future.
Everything it seems is on a “wait and see” basis. Whilst projects and development continues in Semenanjung Malaysia, albeit at a slower pace and at lower costs, Labuan has been completely ignored once again and has somehow become the “child nobody wants.”
Labuan is a major offshore centre for oil and gas activities for the nation and contributes billions of ringgit towards the Federal government’s coffers every single year.
Labuan Island is primarily responsible for the Federal Government’s ability to generate billions of revenue via Petronas every year to pay for and fund Federal projects and to pay for the wages of civil servants, teachers and the military on a daily/monthly basis.
Labuan Island is also a vital defence base for the nation’s Air Force as it has a forward air base that provides defensive and offensive capabilities for the nation in the South China Sea and also providing security for the East Coast of Sabah.
If the Federal Government can fund the building of highways, and roads for billions of ringgit in Semenanjung Malaysia using revenue that Labuan helps generate, then why won’t the Federal Government spend a similar amount building a vital bridge that will link the island to the mainland of Sabah?
What will building a bridge linking Labuan to the mainland of Sabah do for the island’s economy?
- Reduced time to commute between Labuan and Kota Kinabalu to 2 hours from the current 4 hours
n Reduced logistical costs to deliver goods to Labuan from Kota Kinabalu, thereby reducing the cost of goods sold on the island
- Increased delivery of fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and meats in a shorter period of time and shorter exposure to the hot sun that ruins/degrades the vegetables and fruit
- Shorter medical evacuation times from Labuan Hospital to specialist hospitals in Kota Kinabalu from the current 4 hours down to 2 hours by road in an ambulance
- Provides the West Coast of Sabah with an alternative/secondary airport that links Papar/Beaufort/Kuala Penyu to Labuan airport for residents to have easy access and shorter journey times for travelling to Semenanjung Malaysia or overseas and provides airlines with an alternative airport to land in for foreign and domestic tourists
- Easy access for tourists to Labuan by road in a reduced travel time of 2 hours rather than the current 4 hours and provides additional tourism and hospitality options for visitors to Labuan and Kota Kinabalu
- Provides easy access to more tourism products for tour agents to sell to domestic and foreign tourists in Sabah and Labuan.
- Reduced costs for building materials and faster delivery times from the mainland to Labuan
- Safer delivery of toxic and dangerous materials needed for the oil and gas industry that otherwise need to be transported on passenger ferries to the island from Sabah.
A bridge linking Sabah to Labuan will improve the lives of islanders significantly and will help boost the local economy.
These are all factors that cannot be denied. Labuan needs a bridge built urgently linking the island to the mainland of Sabah. There simply is no rational reason not to build a bridge for the greater good of the island or its people.
It is no longer a matter of “Should the Federal Government build the bridge or not.”
It is now a question of when do they start building the bridge and if they actually care about the great difficulties the people of Labuan are going through at this moment in time and realize Labuan desperately needs a bridge built as soon as possible.
Not in 10 years or 20 years or 30 years time. We need it built now please.
Writers Notes: Some interviews for this commentary were used from an article by CNN written by Kate Springer (7th September 2017) titled “Connecting Brunei ... with Brunei: Will this bridge change the sultanate forever?”
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