KUALA LUMPUR: Sabah and Sarawak, which account for 50 per cent of Malaysia’s total oil palm hectarage, have tremendous potentials in growing the biomass sector, says the Innovation Agency of Malaysia (AIM).
Its chief executive officer, Mark Rozario, said industry players should undertake extensive efforts to promote the sector, particularly in the downstream which had a wide source of feedstocks. “Biomass products derived from these palm oil wastes can be exported as a few countries use them as alternative sources of energy.
“These will bring in some income for the country,” he told a media briefing on the two-day International Biomass Conference Malaysia 2015 which would be held on Dec 8-9, 2015. The conference and exhibition, themed ‘Being Local and Going Global: Sustainable Biomass Value Chains’, will be co-organised by Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) and AIM. Rozario said Malaysia has targeted the contribution from the biomas segment to the country’s gross national income to reach RM30 billion in 2020.
Under the National Biomass Strategy 2020, Malaysia aims to maximise the potentials of the country’s biomass resources through a balanced portfolio of downstream industries ranging from bioenergy, advanced biofuels, biochemicals and its eventual end-products. Rozario said the demand for the products came from South Korea, China as well as Finland. “With so many palm oil plantations and about 400 palm oil mills nationwide, we could go further in this sector,” he said.
He said the biomass sector was also able to cushion the impact of lower oil prices. “The higher export volume of biomass products could minimise the exposure of oil prices on the country’s income.
Therefore, local players are urged to step up their game in order to drive the industry forward,” he said. — Bernama