Kamala
KOTA KINABALU: US Ambassador to Malaysia Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir said while Americans are keen to visit Sabah, the distance is a big challenge in bringing them to the Land Below the Wind.
“The environment piece, the marine piece, the eco-tourism piece would attract Americans over time,” she said.
“Nevertheless, Sabah’s distance from the US remains the main challenge to bring American tourists to its shores.
“Sabah is not unknown (to Americans). The challenge on tourism in Sabah is it is far from us. To make a commitment to fly here is a large investment. That is the reality,” she said.
She added that despite that, there were tourists from the US coming to Sabah although they were smaller in comparison to closer neighbours.
“I would call it high-end tourism and back-pack tourism. People are interested in diving, in the rainforests, in the environment, but the reality from those living in the US is, this is a far distance to come. If you fly for 30 hours, you are really investing financially,” she said.
The ambassador also spoke on the issuance of travel advisories against visiting some parts of the state by her embassy.
She said these advisories were something they reviewed and that they worked closely with the Sabah and Malaysia security forces for information.
“We reassess this every six or 12 months and based on that information, we issue different warnings or affirm the warnings,” she said.
Kamala, who succeeded Joseph Yun as US Ambassador, said Yun had done a lot of work to cultivate the relationship with Sabah, and the US embassy was committed to continue and grow in that.
She mentioned the sister city relationship between Kota Kinabalu and Oregon that was forged during the period when Yun was still US Ambassador as one of the facets that the US Embassy and Sabah would continue to work on.
She said she had discussed trade and investment among other things with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman during a courtesy call on the latter as part of her five-day visit to the state.
“We talked about our priorities and we are affirming our commitment to Sabah and work in Sabah,” she said.
She said that in terms of trade with Sabah, the US Embassy would continue with programmes and activities that it was running.
She said there were a number of American businesses that were already in Sabah, and that these included GE as well as several oil and gas companies.
“We have discovered Americans working in the tourism industry,” she said.
During her visit to Sabah recently, Kamala spent two days in Sandakan and three days in Kota Kinabalu.
“The visit was wonderful – we met impressive people in the government and outside the government. We had meetings concerning the environment both with Sabah Parks, Sabah Wildlife Department and the Sabah Forestry Department,” she said.
She said her embassy had, for the past three years, been working with the three organisations to support capacity development of some of the young leaders in the organisation and to share their expertise.
At the same time, she also met with young American graduates who are in Malaysia and in Sabah to work as English Teaching Assistants (ETA).
She said there were nearly 100 of such graduates in the country, 15 of whom were in Sabah.
She said the ETAs taught in secondary schools to help build language in the school.
The presence of the ETAs at the schools was also to allow local students to have an experience with an American and open their eyes to a different way of thinking and culture.
“And also to allow these young Americans to understand Malaysia and Sabah,” she said.