KOTA KINABALU: Sabah with a total investment of more than RM13 billion in 2011 is ranked third after Sarawak and Penang.
Industrial Development Minister Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah said that according to the figures provided by Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), Sabah is not too far away from Sarawak which had recorded about RM14 billion in investment last year.
“The RM13 billion plus figure however has not taken into account the investment from the Oil and Gas industry meaning that the outlook for Sabah is very positive,” Raymond said in his speech when officiating at the Polytechnic Commercial Centre (PCC) which is located within KKIP here yesterday.
Speaking to reporters later, Raymond said that MIDA’s figures gave the state Government some indication as to how successful it is in terms of getting investments into Sabah.
“These are official figures from MIDA and it is in line with our KPI because we need to achieve a certain target.
At one time we were looking at probably it is difficult even to have RM5 billion a year.
“I remember it was two years ago when International Trade and Investment Minister Datuk Sri Mustapha Mohamed was asking me, can you get RM5 billion investment a year?
“When you look at 2011 figure… that we are exceeding RM13 billion, we have already achieved what he asked for,” he said adding that the MIDA figure for Sabah has not taken into account the oil and gas sector like SAMUR in Sipitang and regasification in Lahad Datu.
These figures will probably be captured in 2012, he said adding, “I am very positive that we will do well if we keep on basically encouraging investments to come to Sabah.
According to Raymond, the RM13 billion figure is not just in terms of industrial figures as there is also huge investment in the agro sector like the one in Semporna, a RM2 million investment in the agro-based industry namely cultivating of lobster announced recently by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.
“So if these figures are put together even adding in the service sector, the tourism sector, Sabah has a very positive outlook.Our biggest challenger is Sarawak which raked in about RM14 billion last year and Penang although we are not very far away from Penang.
“We are quite excited about this because I know we can beat Penang because of our resources.
Sarawak is doing better than us because of their energy plan and certain industries like steel and iron are going into Sarawak,” he said.
Raymond stressed that year 2020 is just eight years down the line and the country is now running the 100 meters dash and is at the last leg of the race.
“This is the final leg for us to go forward as a nation in line with the prime minister’s agenda.We don’t have time to waste.
The way we are going at the moment, I think we can achieve our target by 2020.
We even have to be more aggressive now.
“In the past, MIDA’s figures showed that it was always Penang and Selangor at the top, but today, it is Sabah and Sarawak competing with these two states.
We are not that far off, we just have to keep pace with them.
“We have the resources and direction to overtake Penang and this is boosted by the knowledge that our chief minister is very business minded,” he said adding that this environment is good for the private sector to come in.