Dr Kelvin Yii
KUCHING: Budget 2020 has allocated the biggest share to Sarawak in terms of development and financial grants, said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.
Nevertheless, he believes there is still room for improvement in the Budget, especially on addressing the imbalance in development among the regions in the country and helping Sarawak catch up in many aspects, in order to fully enjoy the Shared Prosperity Vision.
“While we acknowledge that the lack of development is due to mismanagement for the past 50-over years, which cannot be addressed even in a few years, more allocations especially for development in the rural areas are still needed,” he said when asked to comment on Budget 2020 presented in Parliament yesterday.
For Sarawak, the general development expenditure is RM4.47 billion, which is about 14.8 per cent of total development fund – the second highest after Sabah.
The total development fund for Sabah and Sarawak amounts to 31.8 per cent of total development fund.
In addition, the federal government has increased the total financial grants to Sarawak to RM1.3 billion, which is the biggest in the whole country, he pointed out.
Dr Yii informed that a part of that is the review of Special Grants under Article 112(d) of the Federal Constitution, which was never reviewed since 1969 under the previous administration.
“The Pakatan Harapan government doubled the special grant to RM32 million for the year 2020 and will increase it further to RM64 million in the next five years.
“I will be pushing for a higher allocation under Special Grants Article 112(d) of Federal Constitution, as well as to get updates on the negotiations between the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister on our rights to our oil and gas and other natural resources,” he said.
Dr Yii further noted that many other allocations, including the biggest allocation to education and healthcare, will benefit a huge population of Sarawak.
“The improvement of the terms in government incentives such as MySalam and PekaB40 will benefit a huge chunk of Sarawakians, of which there is the highest number of B40 in the country.
“Efforts by the government to pump in RM6.5 billion to create more quality jobs will also benefit many Sarawakians as we also have a high unemployment rate,” he said, adding that Budget 2020 is an expansionary budget in its attempt to spur the economy and create jobs.
To improve the infrastructure in Sarawak and Sabah, the federal government has allocated RM250 million to improve internet connectivity via satellite in remote areas.
A sum of RM115 million is also allocated to Sarawak to meet the target of 99 per cent access to clean water, estimated to benefit 7,500 Sarawakians. At the same time, RM287 million will also be allocated for rural electrification, which is set to benefit 16,000 Sarawakians.
For the building of more rural roads under the Jalan Luar Bandar Programme, RM90 million will be allocated in which 120 kilometres of roads in Sarawak will be completed in 2020, benefiting 5,900 rural population in Sarawak.
Under the Jalan Perhubungan Desa Programme, RM35 million will be allocated to complete rural roads in Sarawak, benefiting 30,000 Sarawakians.