KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s ban on log exports caps billions of ringgit leakages and attracts foreign interest that nurtures state industrialization, said Chief Minister Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal.
Shafie said the matter of log export ban had cropped up during a recent meeting with Japan Consul-General, Hiroko Matsuo.
“The consul general had mentioned that they needed logs in terms of their needs, but I have also encouraged them to set up a furniture factory here. We can supply, we can sell from here. If other countries can bar export of logs then why can’t we bar it. We want to ensure that the state government have a lot of products, and among the leakages (left by the previous government) is the export of existing logs.
“The billions of ringgit that we have lost, that we have to make sure, this can be benefited by the state government,” he added.
Earlier on, the Chief Minister also briefly mentioned that an update on the logging concessionaires review will be made very soon and that there are log export cases on his table.
“I have highlighted many of my issues during my discussions with them on how to ensure that we can beef up industrialization in Sabah. I think it is high time now, the way forward for Sabah is downstream, industrialization is going to be one of the focal areas that we need to do,” he revealed.
“We can’t just focus on the primary production level, supply in timber, supply in raw material and all this gas. We must go downstream, we must have industries in Sabah to ensure that we provide job opportunities for fellow Sabahans,” he elaborated.
Shafie said while there was no immediate response from the Japan Consul General, he revealed that he is banking hope for a Toyota assembly factory in the state.
He said the establishment of the factory is apt as Sabah is the biggest buyer of the Toyota Land Cruiser, fondly nicknamed as ‘Ninja Turtles’ by Sabahans, in Malaysia.
“Immediately, they didn’t say anything but of course she heard what I said because we are the bigger buyer. So normally for a very concerned businessman, they want to survive in business, they must listen to the customers and we are the buyer anyway,” he said.
“It can’t be that you cannot assemble cars here. You can do it in Japan, but we have the facilities here,” he added.
Shafie enforced the log export ban and logging concessionaires review at the end of May in a bid to nurture the downstream industry related to wood-based industry, and pinpointed the elephants’ deaths and illegal logging activities within gazetted forests in Sabah.
He stressed his confidence that even though the state government might not earn much revenue, revenue of the people at the grassroots level will increase and more job opportunities will be generated in Sabah.