KUCHING: Sarawak aims to build its future plan more into the area of high and bio-tech industries through the direct investment and implementation for Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).

The annual Sarawak Domestic Inves tment Seminar organised by Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) in collaboration with Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp.) and the state’s Ministry of Industr ial Development (MID) proved to be a platform that attracted an increasing number of businessmen, industrialists, investors and SMEs companies with a very good attendance of 700.

Chief Minister Pehin Sri Hj Abdul Taib Mahmud said that through this seminar, all the businessmen, investors and industrialists around could get themselves more aligned to the interest of industrialisation as Sarawak was still narrow in this approach.He made the observation when officiating at the seminar at the Pullman Hotel, here yesterday.

“We have been quite successful in attracting a lot of heavy industries investment.Up to date we have attracted more than RM36.4 billion worth of investment, which is more than we expected,” Taib said.

He said there should be more of the spin-off effects out of this huge investment.However, at the initial stage there is not much impact on the creation of downstream industries because it would take time to build the bigger industries first which would create the spin-off for smaller industries.

“Hundreds of millions of ringgit has been spent for preparing the needed infrastructures for SCORE in Samalaju and all the work in relation to taking up these heavy industries and the supply of power is on time.We have the Bakun Hydro dam which has been built ahead of time and is now awaiting the completion for all turbines to be installed.

We also have the Murum Hydro dam which is also still ahead of time in completion.Plus, we will have two more hydro projects planned in the near future at Baram and Pelagus,” the Chief Minister pointed out.

“Through these hydro dams, we hope they will enable us to achieve our target of having 6,000 – 7,000 Megawatts of power by the year 2020,” he added.

Taib said that besides the investment in Samalaju, Sarawak also has another huge and potential investment base in Tanjung Manis that is mainly on food production and bio-tech processing where Sarawak plans to be the biggest producer of halal food in the world using its own brand.

Tanjung Manis is also another buzzing industrial port for the state.

“I feel that everything seems to be quite alright except that we have to prepare the one big thing for the implementation of SCORE, that is we have to create a new breed of people which is a bigger portion of technical workers,” Taib stressed.

He said that according to a survey the state government had undertaken, 52 per cent of the 1.6 million jobs that will be created by the year 2030 would be for the skilled workforce.

“This will be one of the biggest challenges we will face.

Everywhere in the world there is shortage of technical workers.We have to compete with other countries, most of which are advanced countries that have more technical workers like US, Europe, Australia, Singapore, China and India.We cannot compete by getting foreign workers to come in to work for us,” he said.

Taib explained that the state has to plan ahead to make sure that by year 2030 it would have enough buildup of technical workers of the right segments for the industries and that they fit the job specifications so as to enable our industries to get recruitment from our own local people.

“SCORE will not be able to give you the immediate benefit within the next 3 to 4 years but those in the service sector such as construction companies are presented with wider opportunities to prepare industrial housing and other amenities that they could supply in the build-up of the industries,” he said.

Taib also mentioned that the third segment of SCORE apart from the heavy industries and biotech industries was eco-tourism at the hydro dam areas, adding that since the area had less population, it was important for the state to have a high-level of protected forests for its sustainability.

“Two to three years from now there will be a bulk of opportunities for small and medium industries to exploit ; hence we must try to find the strategy of taking advantage of all these opportunities.

That is why a seminar like this is essential so that investors, businessmen and SME companies can be fully engaged and heighten their awareness of the oppor tuni t ies in SCORE,” he concluded.

Also present in the ceremony were Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, Deputy Director-General of MIDA, Dato’ Afifuddin Abdul Kadir, CEO of SME Corporation, Dato’ Hafsah Hashim, Legislative Assembly (DUN) Speaker, Dato Sri Mohd As f i a Awang Na s s a r, S t a t e Secretary Datuk Amar Morshidi Ghani, investors, businessmen, government officials and invited guests.

(Source: Borneo Post Online, 29 July 2011)