Lee (seated fourth left) with (seated, from left) Law, Morshidi, Nyurak, Morshidi and others after the tourism taskforce meeting yesterday.4
MIRI: Weekly beach clean-ups in the city will be implemented soon involving government agencies, non-governmental bodies and volunteers on a rotational basis.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin mentioned this to reporters after chairing the tourism taskforce meeting at Miri Resident’s Office here yesterday.
“We should have regular cleaning of our beach and we agreed at the meeting today (yesterday) to involve everyone and they will take turns. Miri City Council (MCC) will be fully involved with the Resident’s Office to work out on the schedule and other matters.
“Those staying at the river banks will also be educated to create awareness that they should never dump their rubbish into the river that will eventually end up at the sea and beaches,” he said, adding MCC and the Resident’s Office will identify the beaches for the weekly clean-up, which is scheduled to be officially launched in June this year.
Speaking on another matter, Lee said a total ban on open burning should be implemented based on the report by the Miri Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba).
“There are quite a number of open burning and some areas are being burnt for agriculture and the area in Subis is quite bad. Bomba has recommended to do cloud seeding and to implement total ban on open burning which I also agree on, and Miri Resident will also look into the matter with the relevant authority.
“I urge everyone to cooperate and not to do any open burning during this dry season. Bomba will continue to patrol every two hours in the Permy and Kuala Baram areas as those are the sensitive areas, and I also hope the enforcement will use drones to monitor the situation and be able to catch those doing open burning red-handed,” he said, stressing the haze is affecting tourism in Miri.
Meanwhile, commenting on the number of cars passing the Sungai Tujoh Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) centre, Lee said as of March this year, 53,361 cars went to Miri from Brunei through the CIQ and 62,953 cars went out of Miri through the CIQ.
Last year, a total of 219,776 cars went through the CIQ into Miri and 171,581 cars from Miri went to Brunei through the CIQ compared to 194,064 and 170,364 cars respectively in 2017, he added.
“Last month, there were quite a number of complaints regarding the long queue at the CIQ on the car permit matter and we have requested the Customs Department to increase the manpower but as I suggested before, the Customs Department should adopt Brunei’s system of online vehicle entry permit, where the QR Code could be scanned to facilitate smoother flow at the CIQ, especially during the weekend,” he said further.
Also present at the meeting were Miri Resident Mastapha Julaihi, Miri Deputy Resident Nyurak Keti, MCC secretary Morshidi Fredrick, Miri Bomba chief Law Poh Kiong and other department heads.