SANDAKAN – Sandakan Port should be turned into a free industrial zone (FIZ) similar to the one in Bayan Lepas, Penang, because the port currently exports the highest volume of Sabah’s crude palm oil (CPO), said DAP’s Sandakan MP Vivian Wong.
Wong told The Vibes that the success of FIZs has been proven in Bayan Lepas, which was the turning point for greater industrialisation of the state.
“It was also the start of the electrical and electronics industry cluster in Penang.
“As the second-largest city in Sabah, Sandakan is blessed with abundant natural resources and is strategically located in the centre of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area region.
“It can be the perfect major growth centre for the east coast of Sabah, playing a major role in trade and logistics via its seaport and airport,” she said.
Despite producing its own CPO, Sandakan does not have any downstream sector for CPO products.
The district instead sends its CPO to Johor and Klang for downstream processes, like fractionation or double triple fractionations, which are unavailable in Sabah.
According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s report on palm oil export by major ports in 2019, Sandakan exported 2.06 million tonnes of palm oil in 2019 – 21.1% of the total export of 9.75 million tonnes from Sabah and Sarawak combined.
Earlier this month, Sandakan became one of three ports listed with East Malaysia Crude Palm Oil Futures Malaysia, other than Lahad Datu and Bintulu in Sarawak.
The large volume of CPO exported from Sandakan proves the district’s high production, but it may not be as beneficial to the district to export CPO compared to processing it downstream in the district, Wong said.
She said the setting up of a FIZ in Sandakan would become an effective solution in attracting investors to develop the downstream sector for CPO in the district.
Wong said Sandakan would become more attractive to investors as the FIZ would exempt import and export taxes, hence reducing setup and operation costs for downstream factories.
Meanwhile, Wong said, it is an ugly truth that the federal government has been putting too much emphasis and focus on Kota Kinabalu, sidelining Sandakan, Sabah’s second-largest city.
“We urgently need a paradigm shift in our development policy and priority. It is time that the government starts focusing on a policy to develop a major secondary growth centre on the east coast to complement Kota Kinabalu and harness the other 50% of Sabah’s potential,” she said.
Sandakan, with a population of over 380,000, has had its economy suffer for the past few years as its tourism sector was crippled after the kidnapping incident in Sabah’s east coast in 2015, followed by the travel restriction during the pandemic beginning last year. – The Vibes, October 12, 2021
