Junz Wong
KOTA KINABALU: Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Junz Wong, in welcoming Budget 2019, said a slashed down of federal allocation for Sabah agriculture was an unexpected setback and disappointment.
He said in general Sabah deserved more than what has been allocated, particularly in state agriculture development.
“There was a slight increase of RM38,700 in the irrigation planning budget, but a great slash down of RM140,000 in fisheries seeding, and RM350,000 decrease in the oyster industry development budget,” Junz elaborated.
The Federal development budget 2019 to Sabah Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based industry showed an increase in irrigation planning from RM2,850,000 (2018) to RM2,878,700 (2019), an increment of below 2%.
Meanwhile, the budget for Sabah Fisheries seedings, showed a reduction of 53.8% from RM260,000 (2018) to RM120,000 (2019) and the Sabah oyster industry development budget was slashed down by 14% from RM2,500,000 (2018) to RM2,150,000.
However, the budget for Sabah Aquaculture development remained unchanged at RM500,000.
Despite the cut on agriculture funding, Junz applauded the overall increase in total budget for Sabah. Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced RM5,009 million for the state, which shows a increment of RM876 million compared to 2018 budget.
The Tanjung Aru assemblyman welcomed the continuation of Pan Borneo highway road construction project at a rationalised cost, and also the upgrading of infrastructure such as water, electricity, road, health, education and development of economic corridor.
“I hope the Finance Minister will give details of the RM5 billion allocated to Sabah and explain what the money is for,” Junz said.
The Parti Warisan Sabah Vice President also expressed his concern on the state development which was left far behind compared to other states in Malaysia, and highlighted that Sabah needs more than RM5 billion.
Junz further elaborated that Sabah contributed huge revenues from oil and gas production.
“This is the right timing for the Federal Government to return not less than 20% of oil and gas royalty to Sabah,” he said.