THE federal and the Sarawak governments have not agreed on any Brunei private company constructing railway routes passing through Sarawak and Sabah.
Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg said the Brunei government had not officially informed Kuching or Putrajaya that a Brunei company would be the one to kickstart the Trans-Borneo Railway project to link Sarawak, Sabah, Kalimantan and Brunei.
Speaking to reporters yesterday in Kuching after the breaking of fast, Abang Johari said the Sarawak government has not had any discussions at all with the Brunei private company.
Two days ago, a private company in Brunei announced that it will draw up plans to kickstart the Trans-Borneo Railway link that will connect Brunei, Sarawak, Sabah and Kalimantan.
The Brunei company claimed that Brunei will be the focal point of railway routes passing through Sabah, Sarawak and Kalimantan.
Abang Johari, however, said he had not heard any such official announcement from the Brunei government.
“That announcement by the Brunei company is just a proposal coming from that private company.
“As far as the government is concerned, there have been no official discussions yet at the government-to-government level between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
“The Trans-Borneo Railway has to be a government project as it involved crossing territories of the three countries.
“Any proposal from the private company is just a proposal from the private sector, not a decision at the government level.
“As far as we in Sarawak are concerned, we will wait for the Trans-Borneo Railway project feasibility study to be carried out by the federal Transport Ministry team from Putrajaya,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Sabah, opposition leader Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the ambitious plan to construct the mega-railway should include the resource-rich east coast of Sabah, adding that the region risks missing vast economic opportunities if excluded.
Shafie said a similar link should be established to tap into the economic potential in the Sabah east coast region.
“I am a bit disappointed that the proposed Trans-Borneo Railway project, which connects the west coast of Sarawak from Kuching, Brunei and Kota Kinabalu, has sidelined Sabah’s east coast.
“The east coast of Sabah risks being left far behind if it was not included in the project despite being rich in natural resources and fertile land due to its volcanic soil,” Shafie told reporters at a breaking-of-fast event in Kota Belud, Sabah, yesterday.
According to Shafie, Sabah east coast areas have considerable economic potential with its fertile land. He recalled having designated 10,000 acres of land to transform the region into Sabah’s agriculture hub when he was chief minister between 2018 and 2020.
He said there had been plans initially to construct an Immigration, Customs and Quarantine Complex in the area but connectivity remains a huge obstacle despite longstanding economic interaction between folk in the region and their Indonesian counterparts in Kalimantan.
“Today, most of the items sold in the local shops in Kalimantan come from the east coast of Sabah. But what I am seeing now, there are still no roads connecting the two regions,” said Shafie, adding that he plans to raise the matter with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“This is not just for the benefit of Sabah, but also Malaysia when it comes to attracting investors into the country,” he said. – The Vibes, April 1, 2024
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