Regulatory power in our hands

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Authority to oversee gas distribution given to Sarawak, one of 7 issues agreed in MA63 talks

KUCHING: The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has agreed to hand over regulatory power on the distribution of gas in the state to the Sarawak government, under the Distribution Gas Ordinance 2016.

This was disclosed in a press statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday following the latest round of talks by the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Special Cabinet Committee chaired by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on July 23.

The handing-over of authority to oversee the distribution of gas in Sarawak was one of seven issues concerning MA63 which were jointly agreed upon – the others being over export duty claims on logging and forest products for Sabah; implementation of federal and state works projects; manpower; state authority on health issues; administration of Pulau Sipadan and Ligitan; and agriculture and forestry issues.

A total of 21 issues were received by the committee for evaluation and discussion, with 13 involving Sarawak and Sabah while the remaining eight, Sabah.

“As of July 23, seven issues have been agreed upon while 14 others still require further discussions which are expected to be decided before Aug 31, 2019,” the statement said.

On the implementation of federal and state works projects, the statement said the federal, Sarawak and Sabah governments have agreed to establish a working committee to strengthen collaboration in the implementation of federal projects in the two states.

“The working committee will discuss the mechanism to implement federal projects based on the Federal Constitution, MA63 and will take into account suggestions made within an inter-governmental committee,” said the statement.

On manpower, Putrajaya has agreed in principle to the devolution of power to Sabah and Sarawak on matters relating to the ‘labour conditions peculiar to the state’ as listed under the two states’ respective labour ordinance.

The federal government has also agreed with the two state governments to set up a special committee to discuss on health management in each state.

As for issues involving the agriculture and forestry sector, the statement said they were dropped from the special committee meeting as both sectors are under the jurisdiction of the each state.

An MA63 taskforce has been instructed to prepare a final report by Aug 31 to present
to the upcoming special cabinet meeting for deliberations before any decisions are made on the matters concerned.

The Special Cabinet Committee was established to discuss the implementation of MA63, and held its first meeting on Dec 17 last year.

Sarawak was represented at the meeting by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, Works Minister Baru Bian, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Deputy Minister Chong Chieng Jen, Assistant Minister of Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, State Attorney General Datuk Talat Mahmood Abdul Rashid, State Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar and Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk David Wong Dak Wah.