Sarawak being the largest of Malaysia’s 13 states and its strategic location on the third largest island in the world, will take centre stage once again, as it diversifies from its traditional reliance on mining, agriculture and forestry, into a state of infrastructure, high-tech industries and renewable energy source.
All eyes and ears will be on Sarawak, as the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) has proven to be the future growth catalyst for the state.
It is poised to drag the state out of its agro-based comfort zone and embrace a range of industries to help the state achieve high-income status by 2020.
“SCORE will help to diversify our economy so we can expand on traditional industries and develop other sectors such as heavy industries, transport, communications, housing, utilities, aquaculture and many more,” said Sarawak Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who has been the driving force behind the state’s rising economic importance for the past thirty years.
“Since we launched SCORE in 2008, we have already seen healthy investments in a range of sectors and it is an excellent start to helping us become a developed state,” he added.
The main focus of SCORE was to leverage on Sarawak’s energy resources, particularly hydropower (28,000 megawatt (MW)), coal (1.46 billion tonnes) and natural gas (40.9 trillion square cubic feet).
These resources would in turn, allow Sarawak to price its energy competitively and at the same time stimulate investment activities in power generation.
Accordingly the 10 industries slated to spearhead SCORE that had been indentified were aluminum, glass, steel, oil-based, oil palm, fishing and aquaculture, livestock, timber-based, marine engineering and tourism industries. The main thrust was to boost heavy and energy intensive industries, resource-based industries, halal products and eco-tourism.
Being one of the five regional economic corridors in Malaysia, SCORE stretches across more than 320 kilometres of land from Tanjung Manis and into the interior of the central region of Sarawak with key industrial zones located at strategic areas along its path.
It was hoped that SCORE would help to make it easier for most companies to do business in Sarawak and expand the available opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to feed off the activities of bigger foreign and domestic players.
“The transformation of the state economy is no longer an exercise to restructure the traditional economic sectors such as timber and agro-based industries,” said the Chief Minister.
“Instead, we are increasing value-added activities of timber and agriculture products such as transport and communications.
Most importantly, the transformation must involve the creation of new sources of economic growth.” He further pointed out that the programme, which adhered to the principles of the Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP) for economic development, was also designed to raise the capacity for knowledge and innovation as well as providing fresh job opportunities for skilled talent.
A primary mission was to enrich the lives of people living in remote parts of Sarawak and accelerate growth in these areas.
The two SCORE hotspots are the Samalaju Industrial Park in Bintulu and the Tanjung Manis Halal Hub on the western-most part of the SCORE area.
Also significant was the newly completed Bakun Hydroelectric Dam power station on Balui River, which would generate 2,400MW of electricity once fully commissioned and would be the main source of energy for the industries in Samalaju Industrial Park and other areas.
Other hydro-based power stations have also been planned in Sarawak to provide power for more industries coming into the SCORE area.
On the investment front, Sarawak had secured RM28.55 billion, representing 14 approved projects – five involved in aluminum, two were for polycrystalline silicon-related ventures, five related to silicone, manganese ferro silicone and other ferro alloys, while two projects were for the halal industry All but the halal-related projects were at Samalaju Industrial Park, which had seen frenetic activity since SCORE was launched and was proving to be a template for the programme’s success.
Fed by power from the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam, several major heavy industries had already committed to the park.
One of the biggest names was Japan’s Tokuyama Corporation (Tokuyama Corp), which was building two polycrystalline silicon plants in Samalaju Industrial Park that would eventually have the capacity to produce more than 20,000 tonnes a year.
Three aluminum production facilities involving five interests, including a solo project by Sarawak’s Press Metal Bintulu, were in the process of building plants at Samalaju while maganese and ferro-alloy products were also being produced.
According to industry sources, Hong Kong-based Asia Minerals Ltd (Asia Mineral), Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) and Australia’s OM Holdings (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd (OM Holdings) were busy with manganese, silicone and ferro-related projects.
The other key node, Tanjung Manis Halal Hub, a 77,000 hectare piece of agricultural land, had already secured a RM2 billion pledge from Taiwan’s Sea Party International for an aquaculture project.
Several Middle Eastern investors had also expressed interest in Tanjung Manis, which harboured ambitions of becoming the world’s leading halal centre.