Abdillah (second left) exchanging the MoU documents with Norliza, witnessed by Awang Tengah (centre) and others.
BINTULU: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will always be given priority by the state government as they are the backbone of the economic development of the state and nation, said Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan.
In line with that, he said, various incentive packages and advisory services have been introduced by government agencies to increase their capacity and capability.
Awang Tengah said this during the Trade and Industrial Seminar at ParkCity Everly Hotel here yesterday.
“Based on the latest report from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) from January to February 2014, Sarawak has successfully attracted the highest investment in Malaysia which is about RM6.8 billion, followed by Selangor (RM1.1 billion) and Penang (RM0.7 billion).
“This means that Sarawak has achieved the best investment despite an impending global economic uncertainty,” he said.
According to him, most of the investments were in the heavy and energy-intensive industries in Samalaju Industrial Park within the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), where the government had allocated 481 acres of land for SMEs.
He named Tokuyama Malaysia Sdn Bhd (phase 2), Sakura Ferro Alloys Limited, Shell MDS (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Bright Wood Sdn Bhd as among the companies that had put big investments in SCORE.
“Samalaju has produced 7,000 jobs including 638 jobs for engineers and generated RM200 million in revenue per year, with about 98 per cent of the workforce Sarawakians.
“To-date, 18 projects have been approved in the SCORE areas involving investments worth RM29.43 billion, with 15 of the projects located in Samalaju, two projects in Tg Manis and one in Mukah,” he said.
He believed with more development in SCORE, there would be more business opportunities for SMEs in food catering, maintenance, logistics and transport and other supporting industries.
“I thus urge the business community in Bintulu to grab this opportunity,” he said.
To encourage the growth of SMEs, he said the state government had formulated policies to develop more industrial estates in the state.
“The state has invested about RM3 billion to develop more than 7,000 hectares of land for industries in major towns such as Kuching, Samarahan, Bintulu, Miri, Sarikei and Tanjung Manis. This does not include the Samalaju industrial area of 8,800 hectares for heavy industry,” he added.
And in Bintulu, he said the government through Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) has developed a total of 2,255 hectares of land for Bintulu Light Industrial Estate, Kidurong Light Industrial Estate Phase 1 and 2, Kidurong Industrial Estate, Kidurong Heavy Industrial Estate, Kemena Industrial Estate Phase 1 and 2 and Jepak Industrial Estate.
Later, Awang Tengah witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between North Java Sea Group Sdn Bhd (NJS) and Petronas under its Vendor Development Programme (VDP).
Representing NJS was its managing director Abdillah Yasin while Petronas was represented by its senior general manager of Group Supply Chain Management Norliza M Nawi.
Among others present were Assistant Minister of Industrial Development (Investment and Promotion) Datuk Julaihi Narawi, Assistant Minister of Industrial Estate Development Datuk Peter Nansian, Assistant Minister of Public Utilities (Electricity and Telecommunications) Datuk Dr Stephen Rundi Utom, Assistant Minister of Tourism Datuk Talib Zulpilip, and State Legislative Assembly speaker Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar.