KOTA KINABALU – The Sabah Industrial Development Ministry will consider providing special incentives for high-impact investments in the state.
Its minister, Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam, said Invest Sabah, a new agency under the ministry, will promote and look into the wish list of potential investors, so as to attract them into investing.
He said it may include selling or renting land to them at a cheap price.
Gunsalam, who is also a deputy chief minister and the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) assemblyman for Kundasang, said this during his winding-up speech in the state assembly here today.
He said this in responding to Datuk Yusof Yacob (Warisan-Sindumin), who had raised the issue of investors losing interest in Sabah as the approval process often takes a long time, with some cases taking years.
“The Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park (Sogip), for example, has had interested investors, but we have kept asking them to wait,” he said.
“We cannot wait until the oil price increases and then decide. Obviously, when we keep asking the investors to wait, they would rather invest in other places where their investments are processed quicker,” Yusof added.
To this, Gunsalam said the duration to approve an investment may take awhile as the government has to undertake due diligence when dealing with investors, especially those brought in through a third party.
“This is actually where Invest Sabah will play a better role – by handling investors and speeding up the approval time frame,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gunsalam said the ministry will set up a halal hub, a training centre for the aerospace industry at the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park, as well as a cold storage facility on the Lahad Datu Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) to attract more investors under the state’s Sabah Maju Jaya initiative.
He said efforts are also being made to develop the POIC as an important port in Sabah.
To resolve the problem of a shortage in local labourers and skilled workers, the ministry will work with the state Economic Planning Unit and Human Resource Development Department to produce a human capital development blueprint for Sabah for 2021 to 2035.
He said it will help in producing local human resources through training programmes in specific industries and sectors.
The Industrial Development Ministry will also look into creating a liquified natural gas (LNG) factory under Sabah Oil & Gas Development Corporation (SOGDC).
It has already started discussions to create a Sabah Oil and Gas Action Council to develop this industry. The creation of the council will serve the state well when it holds discussions with national oil and gas company Petronas Nasional Bhd.
Gunsalam also said his ministry will look into a suggestion to set up the Sabah palm oil board or advisory council.
On small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Gunsalam said in Sabah, they contribute about 99% to the state’s business growth, 41% to its employment and 39% to gross domestic product (GDP).
Last year, the 56,000-odd SMEs in Sabah have generated 451,000 jobs for locals.
Gunsalam said his ministry has also been allocated RM10 million to help entrepreneurs and RM20 million to help micro and cottage entrepreneurs.
However, it is going to need more allocations for this purpose in years to come.
To help SMEs, the ministry has launched an e-commerce platform called GoBiz on December 14. Since then, it has registered 173 participants selling 1,310 products.
The ministry also plans to set up a state-level entrepreneurs council to examine and monitor the impact and effectiveness of existing government plans, and suggest action plans and improvements on the state’s entrepreneurship policy.
“The ministry will boost promotion of the Buy Sabahans’ Products campaign in local markets that will be launched next year,” he added.
“We will market our products internationally by participating in international expos.” he added. – The Vibes, December 23, 2020
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