WELL ATTENDED: A section of the 120 South Korean corporate leaders attending the Trade and Investment Seminar in Seoul.
SEOUL: Sarawak has much to offer South Korean investors in Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).
Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment and Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said this in his keynote address at the Sarawak Investment and Timber Selling Seminar and Business Meeting in Seoul yesterday.
“SCORE is one of the fastest growing regional economic corridors of Malaysia that will transform Sarawak into a high income economy by 2020, and it has attracted RM25 billion worth of investments.
“Investors can be assured that once approval is given, the Sarawak government will all always be there to provide
the necessary assistance to ensure successful implementation of approved projects and assets such as lands are legally protected,” he said.
He pointed out that among the investments they could look into were halal food production, oil palm-based, petrochemical and ceramic industries, including bio-technology apart from ship-building, electronic and high-tech industries,
A Korean conglomerate is finalising its investment in metallurgical silicon in Sarawak.
Seven Korean companies have invested RM1.14 billion in the last decade, with five in wood-based industries (RM150 million), one in chemical (RM175 million) and one in basic metal (RM815 million).
Awang Tengah said the potentially abundant supply of hydro power of up to 20,000 MW in SCORE area fitted in nicely with the emphasis on green growth by South Korea.
He told the audience that the state which had 84 per cent of its 12.3 million hectares of land mass covered by forest subscribed to sound, transparent and sustainable forest management in line with the guidelines set by International Timber Trade Organisation (ITTO), and had been producing 10 to 11 million cubic metres of logs annually in the past five years, of which only 40 per cent was exported.
Awang Tengah also pointed out that the state had been practising a quota system to regulate log production since the 80s and targeted to produce between 15 and 20 million cubic metres of logs annually from planted forests by 2020.
In commending the Koreans for their support and cooperation in attending the seminar, he hoped the long ties between South Korea and Sarawak through timber trade would result in closer and bigger ventures between them.
Malaysia’s bilateral trade with South Korea was RM36.91 billion, with exports of LNG, electrical and electronic products and petroleum and other products raking in RM19.25 billion between January and September last year.
Sarawak’s export was RM8.94 billion in 2010, and it reached RM6 billion in the first nine months of last year, while import was RM263.6 million. Topping the export list were crude petroleum (RM1.5 billion), plywood (RM224.4 million), veneer (RM23.9 million), logs (RM20.5 million), sawn timber and pepper, while the imports were manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment.
Sarawak’s export earnings from timber was RM7.4 billion in 2010, of which timber and related products exported to South Korea brought in RM701 million.
Awang Tengah also told his audience that the state’s economy grew by 4.5 per cent last year and is expected to grow at five per cent this year.
Among those in the delegation were assistant ministers of industrial development Julaihi Narawi (Investment and Promotion) and Datuk Peter Nansian Ngusie (Industrial Estate Development), Assistant Minister of Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh and Assistant Minister of Resource Planning Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais and other top officials from the state government.
Also present were Malaysian Ambassador to South Korea Datuk Ramlan Ibrahim, Malaysian Trade Commissioner Rashid Mohd Zain, Mida director Mohd Sukepli Embong, Lee Kyu-Tae from International Cooperation Division of Korea Forest Service and members of Korean Timber and Trade Associations.