KOTA KINABALU: There is a big market for ‘acacia mangium’ and the returns from the sales of the timber are attractive, said Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman.
He said plantation owners and the Forest Management Unit’s licence holders should plant ‘acacia mangium’ on a commercial scale to help drive the state’s furniture industry.
“The state government, through its agencies, including the Sabah Forestry Development Authority, has already started to plant the ‘acacia mangium’,” he told reporters after officiating the seminar on the furniture industry here yesterday.
Musa, who is also the state’s finance minister, said the prospects of the furniture industry were bright with global furniture trade estimated at US$107 billion (RM328 billion).
He said the timber industry formed the backbone of Sabah’s socio-economic development and was the key contributor to the state’s revenue.
“The sector contributed about RM100 million a year and provided jobs for about 50,000,” he said.
On the call by AirAsia Bhd’s chief executive officer, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, to build a truly low-cost airline hub here, Musa said many factors had to be considered, including the nod from the Ministry of Transport.
“What’s good for Sabah…we will support it,” he said.
Fernandes had said the hub was necessary as Sabah was strategically located in the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area. — Bernama