KOTA SAMARAHAN: There is no sign that investors of any of the 15 approved plants in Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) will pull out of the state.
Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Promotional of Technical Education) Datu Len Talif Salleh yesterday said the state government had a backup plan should there be any withdrawal.
“The total approved investment is about RM30 billion. Nobody in the right mind would want to pull out the investment as some are already in the advanced stage while some will operate by next year.
“We have a backup plan. We know there is great demand (from India) for cheaper electricity. Our political stability and the location outside the ring of fire as well as the trainable manpower are our main attraction.
“At the same time, we have consistent policies and we don’t move the goalposts half way,” said the Assistant Minister of Environment after witnessing the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) campus here.
The MoU, aimed to train more skilled workers for SCORE, was signed between Unimas, Tokuyama Corporation, Japan and Yamaguchi University, Japan.
Len pointed out that the state would need at least 200,000 skilled workers to man the industry in SCORE by 2015 when most of the 15 plants will have started operating.
He said the MoU was the effort of the state government to engage renowned universities worldwide for skilled manpower training for SCORE.
Such engagement was vital as the state had its limitation in training the required workforce, he added.
“We know that we don’t have the capacity and the ability to meet the requirement of what we have in plan. By engaging well established universities is a way of achieving our ambition in the shortest possible time.”