Hajiji (right) and Azmin Ali in a discussion during their meeting on Jan 5.
KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6): The Sabah government and its federal counterparts are working closely to boost the inflow of domestic and foreign investments in Sabah.
The matter was discussed in a meeting between Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor and Senior Minister for International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali on Tuesday (Jan 5) here.
Hajiji spoke to Azmin about the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) State Government’s vision as well as development blueprint to spur economic growth and achieving quality development for Sabah.
“The sate government is committed to forging a constructive cooperation with the federal government to attract more new investments to Sabah,” he said.
Both also agreed to ensure the PRIHATIN and PENJANA programmes as outlined in the National 2021 Budget are implemented successfully for the benefit of the people in Sabah.
During the tabling of the State 2021 Budget recently, Hajiji, who is also Sabah’s Finance Minister said the inflow of domestic and foreign investment funds particularly in the manufacturing sector in year 2019 increased significantly to RM6.48 billion from RM0.23 billion in the previous year.
For the first quarter of last year, he said the value of investments approved was RM11.7 billion, thus proving that Sabah continue to be an attractive investment destination for foreign investors.
In this respect, he said the state government has targeted the growth of this sector at 17.0 percent per annum with a projected contribution to GDP of 35 percent by year 2030.
This year a total of RM142.85 million has been allocated for the development of the industrial and trade sectors under the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industrial Development, Ministry of Rural Development (KPLB) and the Chief Minister’s Department.
Of that amount, RM49.35 million was allocated to the Ministry of Industrial Development including the Department of Industrial Development and Research to implement various programmes such as industrial infrastructure development, entrepreneurship, promoting investment, and efforts to enhance the competitiveness of industry by leveraging on the Industry Revolution (IR) 4.0.