Sarawak: A network for expansion

Sarawak is investing heav­ily in improved transport links as energy and invest­ment projects crucial to national development get into gear.

However, plans for a statewide railway connection have been stalled over viability concerns.In February, local authorities announced that the construction of a 32 kilometre (km) road link­ing the district capital of Belaga with Menjawah was ahead of schedule.

Though it made up only a frac­tion of the road network planned for the state, the road would be a crucial link in connecting the Bakun hydroelectric dam to the outside world when it is completed in August 2013.

Plans were under way to build a total of 2,819km of roads in Sarawak under the 10th Malaysia Plan.

Sarawak was also allocated RM2 bil­lion (US$654 mil­lion) to build new roads for a three-year period begin­ning in 2010 as one of the Govern­ment Transforma­tion Programme’s (GTP) Rural Basic Infrastructure National Key Result Areas.

Meanwhile, the state’s trans­port and storage subsector was expected to expand by 4.7 per cent in 2012, owing to healthy external demand from regional economies.

In February it was announced that RM423 million (US$138.4 million) would be spent over the next three years to upgrade the 2333-km Pan Borneo highway connecting Sarawak to Sabah.

Additionally, last November the government confirmed the budget for two other major road projects, with RM90 million (US$29.5 million) allocated to the Kapit-Song Road and RM62 million (US$20.3 million) to the Belaga Town-Bakun road.

The links would become more important as major projects such as the Bakun Dam and the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) come on-line.

While the dam was expected to have a capacity of 2,400MW by 2014, regional economic zone SCORE aimed to attract investors with rich energy re­sources.

20,000MW would be made available through hydropower and 3,000MW through other en­ergy sources, including biofuels.Mid-2011 saw the completion of an 88km road connecting Sibu, the biggest town and an important transport centre for goods, to the Tanjung Manis deep-water port, as well as to Matu, Daro, Meradong, Belawai and Sarikei.“The potential for these towns in the central region to become new centres of growth is tremendous thanks to this improved con­nectivity,” Datuk Seri Michael Manyin Jawong, the Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications, told OBG.

“Aside from the construction of additional roads, the new industries will also require the support of upgraded roads so that they can handle the tonnage that will begin to pass through the SCORE region.”According to local officials, RM1.5 billion (US$495.5 million) has been approved to be spent on nine priority infrastructure projects that would facilitate SCORE.

These included proposed ac­cess road projects to Murum, Nanga Merit, Baram, Baleh, Tunoh, Limbang, Samalaju Industrial Park and the new Mukah Airport.

Designed to attract projects that consumed significant amounts of energy, such as aluminium smelt­ing, iron and steel, and glass manufacturing, SCORE had received RM28 billion (US$9.2 billion), with another RM70 billion (US$23 billion) worth of projects proposed by August 2011.As the development of the state’s road network continued apace, plans for better rail and air links were also under way.

In December, the Deputy Transport Minister, Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri, pledged that the government would not neglect the state’s air connectiv­ity, adding that a RM136.8 million (US$44.8 million) expansion of Sibu Airport was on schedule to be completed in September 2012.

National airline Malaysia Airlines (MAS) operated flights from KIA to Singapore, Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei Da­russalam and Hong Kong (via Kota Kinabalu in Sabah), while rural links were available to Miri, Sibu and Bintulu.While most interna­tional visitors to the state arrive at Kuch­ing International Airport, officials said air access to SCORE would be improved by 2014 through upgrades to Mukah Airport, with RM300 million (US$98.2 million) to be spent on im­proving facilities and enabling the runway to handle Boeing 737s.

There were also plans to build a 320km railway track between Similajau in Bintulu Division and the Tanjung Manis industri­al port, with officials predicting that the port should see around five million tonnes of cargo move­ment annually by 2020.

However, Manyin told local media last July that the project would be unable to cater to passengers, due to the costs involved.

Offering a greener alterna­tive to more modern forms of transport, particularly for state capital Kuching, is the state’s 3,300km network of navigable rivers.

In 2008 the UN Development Programme conducted a study of the state’s waterways, which resulted in the development of an Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) Master Plan.

The plan runs up to 2020 and focuses on building up IWT and community water trans­port, along with creating an institutional framework for the Sarawak Rivers Board.