FSM applauds State Govt’s good work

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KOTA KINABALU: Sabah, under the current leadership, has undertaken and achieved much success in the past years especially in fulfilling the aspirations of the business community in the state.

“The State Government deserves to be congratulated, it deserves to be given the support so that it can continue with its good work irrespective of whether it is election year or not,” Federation of Sabah Manufacturers President Datuk Seri Panglima Wong Khen Thau, said.

Speaking at the presentation of letters of approval for lease extension/renewal of land in Kolombong by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman yesterday, Wong said his observations and comments on the State Government were made from a businessman’s perspective.

“I hope I will not be accused of being biased as some of our community leaders had been accused of but these are the facts. As far as FSM is concerned, we only speak the truth and the truth is actually the facts that are available… not the accusations that have been made,” he said.

Wong pointed out that Sabah has been among the top states with sound financial management which was given a clean bill by the Auditor General for at least five consecutive years and the state had also received the highest rating of ‘AAA’ from the RAM Rating Service for the last three years for its strong fiscal position as a result of surpluses and accumulation of strong reserves.

Other factors included the fact that the state reserves exceeded RM3 billion and its revenue surpassed RM4 billion, he said adding, “the state’s Finance Ministry emerged as the only one to achieve a 5-Star rating among the state ministries.

Sabah, he pointed out, with a total investment of RM13 billion in 2011 is ranked third after Sarawak and Penang and this is the highest the state had achieved so far.

The double digit decline in Sabah’s poverty rate from 19.7 per cent in 2009 to 8.1 per cent in 2012 is the highest reduction of poverty registered in the country, he stressed.

“The state government has received the largest funding from the federal government due to its good relationship with the federal leaders and it has also taken the bravest step to convince the federal government to set up of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the presence of illegal immigrants in the state.

“We must accept the capability of the state government as it has been very positive in supporting measures to reduce the cost of living and the cost of doing business in Sabah including highlighting the adverse effect of the infamous Cabotage policy to the federal leaders.

“This shows that our leaders have the guts to accept what is reality. I would like to also say here that I was asked to meet former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad last Monday to discuss about the Cabotage issue. Tun Mahathir promised us that he will definitely bring the matter up to the Prime Minister,” Wong said.

“Today we witness yet another highest achievement for the manufacturing sector and the business community in the handing over of the lease letters. Over the years we have been working closely with the Chief Minister and he has assisted us a lot and we have been telling our Chief Minister what is actual fact and what is hearsay,” he stressed.

On the lease extension/renewal approval, Wong said that FSM submitted a total of 78 titles for en-bloc extension in 2010 and added that some of those who participated in the en-bloc submission had actually submitted their applications in 1999.

Understandably, processing of land applications is tedious and involves various relevant government departments hence it is time consuming, so through this experience, FSM encourages landowners to apply through associations or Chambers of Commerce to greatly facilitate their applications with cooperation from the relevant government agencies.

“With the approvals received today, we are confident that the remaining 17 titles will be approved soon and FSM will proceed with the second round of en-bloc submission of about 20 titles as well,” he said.

According to Wong, with the approvals for extension of renewal, the properties, mostly industrial lands, can be lodged with banks and financial institutions as collateral for credit facility to allow the companies’ business expansion or growth.