Ultimately, the growth of rural areas must be accompanied by the development of transport and logistics for a balanced development that is complete with supply chains towards the year 2030 based on Sarawak agenda not only to attain the status of a developed state with high income economy but to emerge as the most progressive state in the country.
For Sarawak to achieve a high income status by 2020, it needs to grow at 8.5% in real GDP. However, the growth scenario is not possible, taking into consideration the uncertainties in both the global and national economies. Hence, it is important for Sarawak to be practical and realistic in projecting its economic growth.
The state, by implementing Sarawak Economic Transformation Plan (SETP), a comprehensive, integrated and balanced plan with the primary objectives of accelerating income growth and reducing income disparity, is projected to grow at 6.5 per cent per annum, a more conservative figure, to achieve a high income status by the year 2030.
The nominal Growth National Income per capita, with a projected growth rate of 6.5% per annum by the year 2020, is RM44,100 which will be below the World Bank definition of a high income nation. However, by the year 2030, the nominal GNI per capita will reach RM82,600, which will exceed the minimum threshold of a high income nation at RM79,000 by the year 2030.
The state government, by implementing SETP, will focus efforts on creating high-income opportunities in new potential sources rather than diluting attention on marginal improvements in old industries. Private investments will be the main driver in the new sources of growth leveraging on the non-oil industries with the government acting as facilitator to explore these potentials.
Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, in his first winding-up speech as the Chief Minister during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the Yang di Pertua Negeri, Tun Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud for his opening speech during the just-concluded sitting of the State Legislative Assembly, said undoubtedly, Sarawak’s economy was growing but not as strongly needed by the state as the growth of the world economy had been pulled up by the rise of China.
For example, the current economic consolidation of China had brought about a fall in commodity prices to lower but more sustainable levels. Therefore, the state had no choice but to get into the digital world, which had been growing by leaps and bounds, creating millionaires by the day. Sarawak must create good jobs for young people so that the state could grow faster towards the year 2030.
The Chief Minister said the state government would spearhead the digital development but leave it to the private sector and young entrepreneurs with talents to do whatever they could to make a living and a name for themselves in the new development.
In this connection, the state government will encourage greater digitisation and more automation, especially in the city centres, agriculture, manufacturing and services, including tourism and provide the necessary incentives to help young start-ups to formalise their operations.
Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari said efforts would be made to upgrade digital infrastructure to world class level and use the availability of energy to attract global digital companies to host their operations in Sarawak.
More importantly, the state government under his leadership would not forget the rural villages, which must be connected in order to bring telemedicine, e-learning and e-commerce to the people even in the far flung areas.
Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari, who is also the President of Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) and Chairman of Barisan Nasional Sarawak, said: “This is my vision and indeed the vision of Barisan National Sarawak. God willing, it will come true.”
He said it was an honour as well as a challenge for him to lead Sarawak boldly into a new future, which was being defined by the rapid changes that could be seen in the global economy and in the technology that was now revolutionising the way the whole world lived.
He said the people in Sarawak, which could not afford to be a mere bystander in consuming the global technological revolution, must put their heads together to figure out how they could together leapfrog into the global technological frontier and participate in the global digital market place.
He said the state government, taking the responsibility seriously to ensure that the world today and tomorrow would also belong to the new generations, would endeavour to find new ways to open up new opportunities for young people. It was important that big leaps must be made into the right direction.
Hence, it was important that strategic plans must be done well ahead as it might be difficult, for some to understand fully the big leaps that were being proposed now to intensify development ahead.
Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari said his immediate concern was to have properly trained young people who could drive the Digital Economy although there might be those who are already in the Digital Economy, doing programming, web design and creating contents.
There might also be others doing angel financing, who looked out for promising start-ups, who could become immediate beneficiaries when the state opened up Big Data by the first quarter of 2018 (next year). Besides, efforts would be made to encourage young people including graduates to get ICT certification for various types of jobs in the digital world.
Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari said the state would collaborate with Huawei in exploring ways to help Sarawak in the development of Digital Economy including training of talents.
All interested parties should take a look at the existing training modules.
He said the state government would allocate an annual budget of RM10 million for Sarawak Digital Start-Up Fund that would provide a basic supporting allowance for young people whose proposed projects had been approved for development as a start-up.
The Chief Minister would like to see at least 100 start-up projects by the end of 2018. Those who had successfully developed their start-up projects could apply for additional funding in order to develop their projects further.
He has already allocated RM30 million for setting up a Digital Village to undertake the start-ups programs; the project will be launched in August. Besides, the state government will introduce a portal that is suitable for local producers and connected to the global digital market. There are many levels by which the e-commerce can be developed.
Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari said the e-commerce could be up and running in a very short time, such as by the end of this year.
The state, during a short period, could promote the cottage industry as well as seasonal fruits and food, which often cropped up now and then in various remote parts of Sarawak.
The Chief Minister said he had announced a number of initiatives which had caused much apprehension among the Democratic Action Party (DAP) members that they were now in “hot soup” and “hot air” during his first 100 days in office.
He was prepared to take bold initiatives to leapfrog the economy into the current global digital frontier as those who did not have the courage to embrace bold ideas might find themselves living under the coconut shell instead of leapfrogging the economy.
He pledged to ensure that all his initiatives as the Chief Minister would be implemented.
Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari, who is also the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning the Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources, said efforts would be made to intensify the development of urban centres, with the City of Kuching taking the lead, so that a good public transport system based on the LRT could be built. The transport system could be complemented by BRT, private taxis, private cars and cyclists. Efforts would also be focused on the creation of new housing areas to cater for a faster increase in the population.
Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari regards Bakun Dam as a major strategic asset from which Sarawak can derive much benefit in the long term and feels proud that Sarawak has managed to reclaim its ownership. The Bakun Dam is a strategic asset, which the state must treasure.
He said the price for Bakun Dam was RM2.5 billion in cash and RM5.6 billion in net debt outstanding as of the end of December, 2016. The Federal Ministry of Finance continues to provide Government Guarantee and Letter of Undertaking to the loans.
He said the RM2.5 billion cash buys the entire equity of the Sarawak Hidro Sdn. Bhd as well as the Special Rights Redeemable Share. The RM2.5 billion in cash will be paid for by Sarawak Electricity Board’s internally-generated funds and loan facilities.
He said the net debt of RM5.6 billion would be repaid purely by the cash flows generated by Bakun Dam facilities over the remaining duration of the loan of 15 years as against the asset life span of the dam, which would last even more than the 60 years’ generation licence period given by the government. This indeed made very good business sense. The Bakun Dam, he added, was commercially-viable.
Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari said Bakun Dam would become another source of income for the Sarawak government once the debts were paid. Besides, by retaining the control of Bakun facilities, which included the hydro lake, the area could be opened up for development for broader social-economic benefits including tourism, recreation, aquaculture, community development and conservation.
He said the state, by owning Bakun Dam, had become the largest power generator in Malaysia; it was guaranteed reliable power supply.
The state plans to integrate Bakun Dam with Murum Dam to bring about better management of power generating capability, which should make it more attractive for global digital companies to come to Sarawak, for example, to up their Server Farms which are the underlying hardware for cloud-computing.
Datuk Amar Abang Haji Johari has taken personal charge of the energy and the development of digital economy to ensure that the critical components of the economy are integrated with each other in order to generate greater economic value for Sarawakians.
He said the state government, with the services of accountants, had done its homework with due diligence and find the price to be reasonable. The state government had done its homework very well before it decided to buy Bakun Hydro Dam.
He said the proposed LRT for Kuching City, initially from Damai to Serian, would be funded by the state’s own financial model and not direct federal funding. The local financing model for strategic projects will not be as what has been envisaged by the opposition, which is primitive and coffee-shop type of business funding method.
