Lau (centre) accepts from Bakrie the certificate of appreciation on behalf of KTS Trading – a sponsor for BCF 2019. Looking on are (from left) Tiong, Siaw and Rogayah.
SIBU: The Ministry of Local Government and Housing will work closely with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Cultural, Youth and Sport and the Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) to incorporate more ethnic features into the annual Borneo Cultural Festival (BCF) here.
In stating this, Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui said this collaboration is meant to make the festival more attractive to domestic and foreign tourists and also participants.
“The main challenge now is to bring BCF to that of international level, like the Rainforest World Music Destival in Kuching. Basically, BCF is a combination of various local cultural events and local delicacies.
“We need to enhance our creativity in introducing the concept of rainforest ethnic music, local signature food and more outdoor social events so as to bring the BCF to greater heights,” he said at the closing of the 10-day BCF 2019 on Dataran Tun Tuanku Bujang Phase 1 here on Saturday night.
The text of Dr Sim’s speech was read by the ministry’s permanent secretary Bakrie Zaini.
Dr Sim commended SMC for being creative in identifying more value-added and attractive features to be incorporated into the festival, such as the ‘BCF Arch’ which had become the identity for this annual event.
Nevertheless, he said the community cohesive-centric event also needed to engage more harmonious and cohesive lifestyles into the BCF, so as to become a good tourism product targeting at a broader spectrum of visitors.
“The local community should be encouraged to drive this type of community-based tourism product aggressively so as to create bigger business and job opportunities for our emerging entrepreneurs and energetic youths.
“All these activities are in tandem with my ministry’s strategic initiative of developing the local economy under our Local Key Result Area Action Plan for all local authorities in Sarawak.
“My ministry will continue with our endeavour in improving the basic municipal infrastructure and services of the local authorities.
“We need to continuously improve our service delivery so as to create everlasting good impression of our towns and cities, such as Sibu and the SMC, to both domestic and foreign ad tourists,” he elaborated.
Dr Sim also assured all that his ministry would continue to support the BCF and make the event into a yearly extravaganza of rainforest ethnic music, signature dishes, outdoor social celebrations and commercial activities for locals and tourists.
Dudong assemblyman Datuk Tiong Thai King, Sibu Resident Charles Siaw and local community leaders Temenggong Dato Vincent Lau, Temenggong Datuk Wan Hamid Edruce and Temenggong Stanley Geramong Bandar, as well as festival’s organising committee chairperson Rogayah Jamain were present at the event.
Spectators fill up Dataran Tun Tuanku Bujang Phase 1 for BCF 2019’s finale extravaganza.