Madius Tangau
KOTA KINABALU: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Madius Tangau is disappointed that allocation to Sabah in the national Budget 2019 did not commensurate with the land area of our state.
Madius said Sabah and Sarawak, which he referred to as mainland of Malaysia, has a land area of 73,000 square kilometres (sqkm) and 124,000 sqkm respectively.
He said the land area of East Malaysia totalled up to 200,000 sqkm as compared to 133,000 sqkm of Peninsular Malaysia, yet Sabah and Sarawak were only allocated RM5 billion and RM4 billion out of the RM300 billion national budget.
“The budget does not commensurate with the land area of Sabah,” Madius, who is also the Minister of Trade and Industry, said when gracing the inaugural installation ceremony of Small and Medium Enterprise Association of Sabah (SME Sabah) here on Sunday.
On another note, Madius said Sabah would face labour shortage in the next 10 years as Indonesia was offering the same minimum wage rate and job opportunities in its thriving manufacturing sector.
He said Indonesian workers might choose not to work in Sabah in the future as they could seek employment in their own country.
Hence, he said automation was the way forward for industries, especially for the manufacturing sector.
Madius also said the state government had emphasized to its federal counterparts on utilities, logistics and security issues that contributed to the high cost of doing business in Sabah.
He assured that the new government was committed towards reducing the cost of operating business.
In addition, he said the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) Lahad Datu would be run at 24 hours soon, instead of the current 6am to 6pm operating hours.
He also said a study needed to be done to establish a free trade zone in Sabah, especially a digital free trade zone like in Peninsular Malaysia.
On the other hand, SME Association of Malaysia president Datuk Michael Kang Hua Keong said the growth of SMEs’ contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remained low at 36.3 per cent in 2015, 36.6 per cent in 2016 and 37.1 per cent in 2017.
He said the SME Masterplan had targeted 42 per cent contribution to GDP by SME by 2020.
While it is not easy to achieve 42 per cent contribution to GDP in three years, Kang believed that directive by the new government to enhance the transparency and efficiency of the public delivery system would help SME to grow.
Kang added that the association had come up with a series of plans and programmes to aid the growth of SMEs nationwide, including working with Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) to push SMEs to the international market, incubator programmes, and collaborating with Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC) to help SMEs transition to Industry 4.0, among others.
Meanwhile, SME Sabah president Foo Ngee Kee said SME Sabah needed to collaborate and work closely with other chambers of commerce and business organizations in the Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Philippines -East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) as Sabah only had a population of 3.9 million whereas BIMP-EAGA collectively had over 70 million population.
“All members of chambers of commerce and business associations in Sabah need to collaborate and work closely to pull together individual association’s resources, network and manpower to help Sabah compete with other states and nations in exports and attracting foreign direct investments to Sabah.”
With his recent appointment as the BIMP-EAGA Business Council (BEBC) chairman for KKJA district to lead the SME development cluster, Foo hoped to work towards collaborating and synergizing with chambers and associations in the region.
“This is because to be able to export to China, for example, just the production of Sabah alone is insufficient to meet the huge China demand for tropical fruits, bird’s nests and other products.
“With the successful collaboration and synergies of BIMP-EAGA as a trading bloc, Sabah will be closer to achieving her goals as a transhipment hub of BIMP-EAGA.”
Also present were Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Kota Kinabalu, Liang Caide, SME Sabah permanent honorary president Datuk Frankie Liew Chun Tai, honorary advisor Datuk Henry Hing and deputy president Michael Chin.