Sabah approves 647 projects under 11th MP

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has approved 647 development projects under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11th MP) to bring progress in the state.

Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman said 304 continuous projects and 343 new deals had been approved as of Sept 25.

The projects include the PanBorneo Highway, rural electricity and water supply, road connectivity, people’s housing programmes, construction and upgrading of flyovers in the state capital, and boosting infrastructure for communication, education and security sectors.

“As a responsible leader and government, we will continue to intensify the people’s agenda by spurring development in the state.

“In this context, I am happy to note that the implementation of development programmes under the 11th MP (2016 to 2020) is proceeding smoothly. In the first year of implementation last year, RM646.874 million from the total development allocation financed by the state government was spent.

“The second implementation saw development allocation funded by the Federal Government had increased to RM4.277 billion compared with last year. Until Sept 25 this year, 647 projects were approved,” he said this at the Sabah state honours and awards investiture ceremony at Istana Negeri here today.

The investiture ceremony was held in conjunction with the 64th birthday celebration of Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Juhar Mahiruddin.

He said various sectors in the state continued to record encouraging growth with positive economic prospect, with the state tourism continuing to play strong role, with 2.109 million of tourist arrivals in the first seven months of this year.

“This shows an increase of 10 per cent compared with the number of tourist arrivals within the same period last year. As Sabah remains a popular tourist destination, the state government has taken aggressive efforts to attract more investment in the hotel sector.

“The government has also implemented programmes to boost the socio-economy, develop human capital and provide conducive basic and physical infrastructure.”

Musa said the number of recipients of Financial Management Excellence Award Based on the National Audit Department Accountability Index showed an increase each year.

He congratulated 22 of the 33 state ministries, departments and agencies, which were audited, for obtaining five-star ratings, adding that Sabah received the most rating compared with other states.