Sabah creates development blueprint to complement SMJ 1.0

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 21 -- The Sabah government has formulated the Sabah Development Corridor Blueprint 2.0 (SDC 2.0) for the 2020-2030 period to boost development in the state.

Governor Tun Juhar Mahiruddin said the blueprint was a review of the SDC Blueprint 2008-2025 to ensure the state's development plan complemented the Sabah Maju Jaya Roadmap (SMJ) 1.0 launched earlier this year.

He said the blueprint outlined five strategic thrusts, three of which were directly related to economic development, social and environmental sustainability, while the other two thrusts were related to the business ecosystem and human capital development.

He said as a start, 30 SDC initiatives had been prioritised and would be implemented based on a regional development approach to achieve the target of fair, balanced and sustainable growth across the Sabah corridor.

“Among the initiatives is the RM1.02 billion Sapangar Bay Container Port expansion project to turn it into a logistics and transshipment hub for the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

“This project will be one of the catalysts for Sabah's economic redevelopment. The design and preliminary works have already been completed, while the physical work on the site is expected to begin in October this year, " he said when delivering the government's policy speech in conjunction with the opening of the first meeting of the second session of the 16th Sabah State Legislative Assembly here today.

Meanwhile, Juhar said the Sabah government would continue to strive to ensure the state's revenue remained sustainable so that the well-being of the people continued to be guaranteed, especially when the economy and people’s livelihoods were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said a new source of revenue was introduced last year, namely the Sales Tax on Petroleum Products, which had contributed significantly to the state government's revenue stream.

Therefore, he said, the Sabah government was committed to ensuring the revenue target set for this year was achieved, in addition to continuing to push for revenue rights claims under the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

Meanwhile, Juhar said, through the SMJ 1.0 initiative and flagship roadmap, the Sabah government, through wholly-owned KKIP Sdn Bhd (manager of the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park), had attracted the largest investment of RM4.28 billion from a company that would operate a copper foil manufacturing plant to produce copper foils for electric-powered vehicle batteries.

The plant, slated to start operations in 2023, was expected to provide 400 jobs, he said.

This would be in addition to the development of a coconut processing plant with an investment value of RM200 million in Pitas which would create 3,250 jobs, he said.

-- BERNAMA