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KUALA LUMPUR: Sarawak-based Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) plans to bid for packages offered by the government this year for the Pan Borneo Highway development.
“There are 10 packages of the highway construction that will be opened for tender this year and we will bid for at least one of them for sure,” group chief financial officer, Syed Hizam Alsagoff, told reporters on the sidelines of Invest Malaysia 2016 here yesterday.
The ten work packages for the Pan Borneo Highway development, scheduled to start this year and be completed by 2022, are from Sematan to Miri, stretching 746 km.
To date, two packages — Nyabau Road Junction to Bakun Road Junction (43 km) in Bintulu and the Telok Melano to Sematan (33km) in Sematan — have started.
The Pan Borneo Highway, which covers 2,239 km in Sarawak and Sabah, is estimated to cost about RM29 billion.
Syed Hizam said the new RM156 million CMS cement plant in Sarawak would cater to the needs of the highway works and other developments in the state.
“As the state’s economy grows, the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy and Samalaju projects are going to need cement.
“Also, the government wants to build many hydropower dams. So, we are preparing ourselves for the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, Syed Hizam said, CMS wanted to use the proceeds from the proposed RM1 billion Sukuk issuance to seed its investment in the Malaysian Phosphate Additives (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd’s integrated phosphate complex.
“CMS holds 40 per cent stake in the RM2 billion project which is expected to be commissioned in 2018.
“On completion, it will be South-East Asia’s largest integrated additives complex housing nine different plants producing food, fertiliser and halal feed phosphate,” he said. – Bernama