Proposal by China firm, however, must be studied in detail for viability first — Awang Tengah
Beca Sci-Tech board chairman Fridy Dong (front, seventh right) presents a souvenir to Awang Tengah (front, fourth right). — Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING: The Sarawak government is all for the setting up of a petro-chemical refinery in the state but a detailed study needs to be conducted on the proposal, says Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
Awang Tengah, who is also Minister for Industrial and Entrepreneur Development, said this after receiving a courtesy call from the members of the board and management of Beca Sci-Tech, a potential investor in the project, from the People’s Republic of China.
“Our meeting today (yesterday) is just preliminary discussion on the proposed petro-chemical investment in Sarawak,” he said, adding that the Sarawak government would have to look at how it could assist in the private initiative.
“Of course further study has to be done. Generally, of course, we welcome it as it is a good project contributing to the economic development of the state and that the spin-off (projects and opportunities) will be a lot,” he told The Borneo Post and Utusan Borneo at his office in Wisma Sumber Alam, Petra Jaya here yesterday.
When asked on the briefing by Beca Sci-Tech, Awang Tengah said as the investment would be big, they needed to be sure of steady supply of raw materials like crude oil and know how the company could help in developing downstream industries.
“And if they have to invest together with other companie, we need to know which are these other companies. We want to get all these data,” Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources, said.
“The downstream industries will directly benefit the communities and (improve) the development of SMEs (small-medium enterprises),” he pointed out.