Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu
KUCHING: Sarawak wants to offer foreign investors the advantage of competitive and steady growth of power supply.
The development strategy of Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), in particular, is built on the availability of hydropower and coal which can be developed in the rugged terrain of the hinterland.
Geographically, SCORE covers an area of more than 70,000 square kilometres located in the central region of Sarawak.
The terrain gives birth to great rivers in Sarawak, – the Rejang and the Baram rivers – as well as the potential for the development of hydropower.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu said this during a business forum in Prague, Czech Republic, on Monday.
“It is the availability of this inland power that Sarawak wishes to pin its economic future on, so that more capital-intensive and higher value-added economic activities can be introduced to the state, and higher incomes made accessible to its people.
“Sarawak has a total hydropower potential of 20,000 megawatts of electricity. Coal energy adds another 8,000 megawatts.
“We have already developed Bakun and Murum, with installed capacities of 2,400 and 944 megawatts respectively. All this power has been pre-sold to industries.
“We are now planning to develop Baram and Baleh hydroelectric dams with installed power capacity of 1,200 megawatts and 1,295 megawatts respectively,” Jabu said.
The attraction afforded by hydroelectric power, he added, was that its cost of production was stable in the long run, green and renewable.
“In this regard, Sarawak offers the advantage of power supply that is very competitive, not only in terms of price but also more importantly in respect of our ability to build a steady growth of power supply.
“We plan to generate sufficient energy to meet current and future demands from the off-takers especially from energy-intensive industries through systematic development of more power generating facilities,” he said, adding that the opportunities in SCORE came from the opening of new geographical areas through green field development, provision of key infrastructures and utilities, creation of new industrial sites and encouraging new fields of study and training.
Czech Republic’s Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Milan Hovorka, Malaysia’s Ambassador to Czech Republic Nadzirah Osman, Land Development Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing, Second Minister of Resource Planning and Environment Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan who is also Minister of Public Utilities and Minister of Industrial Development, Assistant Minister of Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh who is also Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Promotion of Technical Education) and president of the Confederation of Industry of Czech Republic Jaroslav Hanak were among those who attended the forum.