KUCHING: The allocation for Sarawak under Budget 2017 is not within the state’s expectation, says Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh.
“We are indeed looking forward to receiving more allocations from federal (government), taking into consideration the economic status of Sarawak which is way behind our counterparts in Peninsular Malaysia.
“In addition, we are also looking for more allocations to upgrade many rural schools that are in dilapidated constitution, as well as clinics to serve our rural communities,” he said in a statement issued yesterday.
In this respect, Wong noted that a sum of RM1.4 billion would be allocated to four university hospitals but regretfully, the teaching hospital for Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) was not included despite the state looking forward to getting the project for many years.
However, Wong was pleased about a number of other goodies for Sarawak, namely the installation of street lights at villages in the rural areas, the construction of Batang Lupar Bridge, reconstruction of 30 destitute schools using the Industrial Building System (IBS), implementation of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) Content Creation Hub in Santubong, one new Rural Transformation Centre (RTC) and infrastructure development for Sarawak Corridor Of Renewable Energy (SCORE).
The minister also lauded Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on his tabling of the national budget, particularly on the point about the continuous efforts to reduce national fiscal deficit to three per cent of Gross National Product (GDP) from the present 3.1 per cent amidst global uncertainties and declining revenues.
He pointed that Budget 2017 was indeed a people-centric budget with various initiatives such as the emphasis on ‘public happiness’ – one related to quality of life such as being free from crimes, clean environment and various colourful arts and culture, as well as good healthcare such as the provision of one-off grants worth RM200,000 to private haemodialysis centres slated for the purchase of equipment.
“There are also various goodies for the people meant to ease their burden in view of the rising cost of living such as the increase in BR1M (1Malaysia People’s Aid), the increase in allowance for ‘ketua kampung’ (village headmen), JKKKs (village development and security committees), as well as for surau and mosque officials.”
In this regard, Semop assemblyman Abdullah Saidol concurred with Wong in viewing Budget 2017 as a people-centric budget.
Additionally, he hoped that more allocations would be channelled for the people in the rural areas.
Abdullah, who is also chief political secretary to chief minister, stressed that serious measures must be undertaken to enhance the efficiency and accountability of the delivery of public funds to ensure that there must never be any ‘leakage and mismanagement of funds’.
“We don’t want it look pretty on paper but when it comes to managing the funds at ministry level, bureaucratic inefficiency, corrupt officers and bad contractors would ruin all the government’s noble intentions of ensuring that this budget would produce high-impact results in favour of the people and the nation,” he said.