Frankie Liew
KOTA KINABALU (July 27): Sabah businessmen see great prospects in Sabah’s East Coast, especially in terms of strengthening linkages with markets and resources in East Asean region.
They hailed attempts by POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd through the POIC Lahad Datu industrial park (widely known as POIC Lahad Datu) to becoming the logistics, manufacturing and transshipment hub of the BIMP-EAGA territories.
Sabah small and medium enterprises as well as the Sabah Economic Advisory Council support the POIC Sabah aspirations.
President of Sabah China Chamber of Commerce (SCCC), Datuk Frankie Liew opined, “It is commendable that POIC Sabah is looking to tap the potentials of BIMP-EAGA and turning POIC Lahad Datu as a gateway and a logistics hub to East Asean.”
“Except for Brunei which is entirely within BIMP-EAGA, the territories of EAGA are located well outside the national capital of the member countries such as Malaysia (in Kuala Lumpur, Peninsular Malaysia), Indonesia (in Jakarta, East Java) and the Philippines (in Manila, Luzon) and therefore, those territories outside the national capitals, have not been getting sufficient amount of attention.
(The subregion of BIMP-EAGA covers the entire sultanate of Brunei Darussalam; the provinces of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and West Papua of Indonesia; the territories of Sabah and Sarawak and the federal territory of Labuan in Malaysia; and the island of Mindanao and the province of Palawan in the Philippines).
Through BIMP-EAGA, the four countries want to generate balanced and inclusive growth as well as contribute to regional economic integration in the ASEAN economic community.
“BIMP-EAGA’s economic progress has been hampered by geography, logistics, infrastructure deficiency, porous borders, shortfall in connectivity etc and POIC Sabah’s plan is basically to present itself as a catalyst to unlocking all the potentials,” said Liew, who led a delegation of SCCC to visit POIC Lahad Datu last month.
SCCC, formed in 2019, has more than 100 members engaged in diversified range of businesses and industries. Among the SCCC members are sizable manufacturing and trading companies which, with the support of logistics, are willing to explore the neighbouring market potentials offered by the 70 million population in the four countries.
Liew commented: “For example, POIC Sdn Bhd can set aside some of its industrial land, work out certain favorable terms and encourage our established enterprises to set up their manufacturing and distribution centres to access the BIMP-EAGA market.”
“These local established enterprises together can potentially give POIC’s logistics hub ambition a good start. This will naturally encourage the growth and interest of businesses in transportation, storage, cold storage, packaging and all manner of logistics activities.”
On the rising importance of East Kalimantan mainly due to the planned move of Indonesia’s new capital to Nusantara, he said SCCC will lead a Sabah delegation on a mission to East Kalimantan in September to meet and exchange views with business people and government officials to learn more about the much-touted potentials arising from the new capital move.
Meanwhile, Liew suggested that East Kalimantan should consider such coming-together as trading partners in view that the two territories are neighbours and share the same border.
He also emphasized the importance of basic infrastructure and amenities, and how the image and perception of an investment destination are key factors of success.
“I did not hesitate in supporting the idea of having an international airport in Lahad Datu. Other than the fact that it will be better than the present airport, it will literary open up our east coast, and to me, it is a necessary investment.
“We can either act fast to claim the first-mover advantage before other international airports emerge in this region or we play catch up.
“Our mind-set is key to us in making the right decisions. In terms of expensive but necessary infrastructure, do we adopt the pioneering ‘build and they (businesses, tourists etc) will come” or the opportunistic hope-for-the-best “when, and if, they come, we will build”?
The SCCC president said Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor was spot-on in calling on the entire Sabah government and the civil service to take ownership of their status as stakeholders of Sabah’s interests and progress.
“Every ministry and department, whether state or federal must work together, complement each other and prioritise Sabah interest.”
He praised Datuk Sri Panglima Yong Teck Lee’s leadership as chairman of POIC Sdn Bhd and its focus on China investment.
The former chief minister assumed chairmanship of the state-owned company last year, and has since been working with the Malaysia-China Business Council and the office of the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to China in networking with China’s decision-making agencies and potential investors. It has since established link up with the China Construction Bank and China Overseas Development Association.
“The China market is huge and knowing what to attract, who to talk with and to navigate such a vast landscape for business sectors, technologies, expertise and resources is best done through networking,” he added.