SARAWAK must be able to catch, match, anticipate, expand and plan for cost effective and efficient transportation system be it for humans or for goods to be globally competitive.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing said the planning for transport must tackle more complex questions than they did in the past.
“Based on observation during our recent China trip, our team has learned a lot. Being a huge country, China faces very high demand in its requirement to cater for not only its population mobility but also trade and cargo.
“They solve this problem by adopting what is known as ‘multimodal transportation’ system,” he said in his winding-up speech yesterday.
He said multimodal transportation system was basically transportation chains where deliveries of people or goods were made possible by connecting different modes of transport (for example by bus then by train, followed by river transport and then airplane) all in a practical, scheduled and harmonised manner from point A to its final destination.
Masing, who is Minister for Infrastructure Development and Transportation, said with various modes of transport put together based on the state’s geographical terrain, budget constraints, and trade requirements among others, it was possible for Sarawak to emulate the ‘multimodal’ system and formulate one that would suit the state.
He said transportation’s basic purpose was more than moving goods and people from one place to another.
“In our efforts to plan and develop an efficient and holistic transportation network, the state government does face geographical challenges, budget constraints, sparse population distributions and other hindrances along the way.
“However, as the saying goes, ‘If there is a will, there is a way’. But we need to put our heads together and think out of the box in bringing new ideas on how best to deliver our jobs in hand.
“My ministry does welcome constructive suggestions from all the assemblymen in this august House,” he said.
He noted that in 1963, there was only about 600km of roads in and around major towns in Sarawak with rivers as the main mode of transportation.
But today, he said Sarawak had around 30,000km of roads including the Pan Borneo Highway.
“Although major towns and cities in Sarawak are connected by roads, much of the rural areas have been left devoid of any connectivity.
“As a result, much focus is required to plan for, and to connect these areas to allow our state to turn these under-utilised lands into productive assets,” he said.