MIRI – Looking forward to the rise of Indonesia’s new capital city named Nusantara, Sarawak will open new immigration points connected with Kalimantan to facilitate a greater movement of people and cargo between the two regions.
Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg said the new checkpoints will be located in northern and central Sarawak.
They will complement the existing immigration checkpoints in southern Sarawak.
Speaking at the winding up of the state assembly session in Kuching last night, he said the state is liaising with Putrajaya on the new checkpoints.
“We need new checkpoints to facilitate entry and exit with Kalimantan,” he said. “The northern and central parts of Sarawak need to have such proper immigration facilities.
“We expect a vast volume of trade and also movement of people across the Sarawak- Kalimantan border in the near future.
“There will be a lot of developments along the border coming very soon,” he said.
On May 17, Sarawak governor Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud urged the state government and private sectors to aggressively tap the potential generated from the new capital.
Nusantara in neighbouring Kalimantan is very near Sarawak and this state will see huge benefits from that new capital, he had said at the opening of the state assembly sitting.
Taib said there will be mega-developments coming soon along the Kalimantan and Sarawak border.
On April 2, a Malaysian Government delegation led by Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili, who is a minister in the prime minister department in charge of Sabah and Sarawak affairs, visited Nusantara.
Ongkili was quoted as saying that the Indonesian officials in Nusantara had given the Malaysian delegation a preview of the construction masterplan being carried out by the Nusantara developers.
The Sarawak state government had also last month deployed a high-level ministerial visit to Nusantara.
Sarawak is already drawing up a construction design for a massive network of highways adjacent to its border with Kalimantan.
The network of highways on the Sarawak side will be designed to run parallel with the highway being built by Indonesia on their Kalimantan side.
Sarawak and Indonesia have also officially entered into talks on how Sarawak can play a big role in developing hydroelectric dam projects in north Kalimantan.
The state government wants to help the Indonesian government develop their power plants to supply electricity to Nusantara.
Sarawak Energy will work with Indonesia through partnership in developing the Mentarang Induk Hydroelectric power plant in north Kalimantan.
Indonesia intends to relocate its capital city from Jakarta to Nusantara within the next 20 years. – The Vibes, May 27, 2022
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