BILATERAL GOALS: Abang Johari underscores that as neighbours, both Sarawak and West Kalimantan should share its future and growth together, with both economies be private sector-driven.
PONTIANAK: Sarawak and West Kalimantan are urged to fully utilise the strong bilateral relationship through several major industries given that both regions are just border-to-border away.
“If both regions could tap on the resources that they have through cross-border industries such as education, human resource, agricultural and tourism, I believe these can turn us into a high value economy state moving forward,” said Minister of Housing Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg during his visit to Sarawak Business Expo held here recently.
The minister further pointed out that both regions offered extra-ordinary opportunities for cooperation.
“As neighbour, we should share our future and growth together. Our economy must be private sector driven and that is why we encourage more cross-border trading if possible.”
One of the areas highlighted by Abang Johari was education in terms of human capital development particularly through technical field, whereby both regions should consider to have more student exchange programmes.
“We have Unimas, UiTM, Swinburne, Curtin and UCSI while Kalbar (West Kalimantan) have theirs in return. Through these exchanges, it will help enrich the knowledge between the two regions as technological knowledge is important as an added value especially in ICT and biotechnology,” added Abang Johari, who is also Tourism Minister.
Another area that should be brought into consideration would be the human resource development programme, since both regions have a total population of more than 7.1 million with most of them comprising the young generation.
“If we give them a proper training, these young generations are the one that will boost our economy moving forward,” highlighted the minister.
Apart from that, players from both sides should also explore opportunities in the agricultural industries given that both regions had a vast land that had yet to be developed. It would be a very important source of income for the economy if Sarawak and West Kalimantan could jointly develop this area and reach out to the world food market through the ‘Halal Hub’, Abang Johari pointed out.
“One of the most important area that could be harnessed between Sarawak and West Kalimantan is tourism. Players should look into the tourism industry as I understand that the two airlines currently flying into Kuching from Kalbar have high load factors,” added Abang Johari.
“Sarawak has an economy growth of four to six per cent and is well supported by the development of Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), Tanjung Manis Halal Hub and Samalaju Industrial Park.
Both regions (Sarawak and West Kalimantan) offer good potential for networking in this area. With these in place, the economy in both regions can flourish faster with government facilitating the efforts,” the minister underlined.