Lundayeh chamber welcomes bigger budget for rural development
KOTA KINABALU: The Lundayeh Sabah of Commerce of Commerce & Industry (LDSCCI) expressed its gratitude to the efforts by Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman on pushing hard for the Federal Government to allocate a higher budget for rural development in the state.
This was evident in the recent national 2018 budget tabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, said LDACCI president Julian Magian in a statement yesterday.
“Tan Sri Musa has been championing for the well-being of rural people like our Lundayeh community in Long Pasia. We have waited for years for our gravel road to be sealed and I really believe the government will make it happens this time round, there is no doubt about it,” he stressed.
The total allocation approved for the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (KKLW) was RM9.483 billion, an increase of RM592 million from the 2017 allocation. More than half of this allocation will be used to develop rural areas in Sabah and Sarawak.
His opinion was echoed by community leader cum successful businessman from Long Pa’sia, Andrew Laban.
Andrew who is also LDSCCI deputy president, expressed hope that the Rural and Regional Development Ministry will use some of the approved allocation to upgrade the long awaited gravel road from Meligan to Long Pa’sia to boost the multi-million agro economic potential in the area in order to empower the Lundayeh rural community in Long Pa’sia to partake in the high performing Highland Agro-Organic economic activities and Eco-Healthcare Tourism.
He was of the opinion that the national 2018 budget has given special benefits to the people of Sabah and Sarawak, especially the rural areas like Long Pa’sia, Sipitang which has been declared in December 2016 by the Sabah State Assembly as an agrotourism destination in the state.
The vote of thanks was made during LDSCCI’s recent meeting with Persatuan Lundayeh Sabah (PELSA) during which the preparation for the ‘Transformasi Nasional 50’ (TN50) program in Long Pa’sia, Sipitang was finalised.
Julian said the program will be held from December 13 to 16 and they will be receiving a big delegation from the Governor’s office of North Kalimantan.
Earlier, LDSCCI had a discussion with Frederick Elia Gugkang, a Lundayeh who is the head of BAPEDDA (Economic Regional Development Planning Board) in Kalimantan Utara to initiate the development of Lundayeh Economic Zone (LEZ).
LEZ, ‘the Golden Triangle of Borneo’ comprises Long Pa’sia (Sabah), Ba’Kalalan (Sarawak) and Long Bawan (Kalimantan Utara). The present masterplan of Kalimantan Utara to construct main road from Long Bawan through Pa’Betung to Pa’Pani without passing through Ba’Kalalan (Sarawak) is going on to the border of Long Pa’sia.
LEZ is the biggest highland rainforest in world and situated 3,000 feet above the sea level
“LEZ is rich with untouched natural resources tapping up international market potential for both fresh total-chemicalfree highland organic products such as ‘Highland Rice’, ‘Highland Salt’, ‘Highland ‘Ajinomoto’ and ‘Highland Ayam Jagung’.
“Also, LEZ is a perfect destination for International Medical Tourism because LEZ provides Pure and Natural Hyperbaric environment to strongly reverse the development of degenerative diseases like diabetes mellitus, cancer, autoimmune and so forth,” stressed Julian.
There are no proper sealed land crossings at present criss-crossing the watershed regions.
Briefly, he said, the LEZ could focus on temperate Agro-Organic and Eco-Health Tourism in the cool country climate making up the watershed region.
He sees great potential in marketing these temperate products in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei Darussalam and in Singapore as well as the Klang Valley through the airports in Kota Kinabalu, Miri and Bandar Seri Begawan.
LEZ Eco-Healthcare Tourism exclusive packages will attract hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world for healthcare rehabilitation programs, Julian said.
“We will push for downstream diversification and backward and forward integration in small and medium scale industries including to develop identified areas which potentially contain large deposit of dimension stones for quarry industry but these locations must be operated far from the designated LEZ,” PELSA president George Gaing said.
George added that PELSA will assist LDSCCI with marketing and promotional activities for LEZ’s temperate highland produce and international Eco-Healthcare Tourism products.
LDSCCI welcomes stakeholders and investors from Malaysia and neighbouring countries for a collaborative engagement for the development of LEZ.
For further details, please contact the chamber’s secretariat at 012-801 3403 or email at ldscci@ yahoo.com.
The meeting was attended by Julian (president of LDSCCI), Andrew (deputy president), Dr Donny Daud (secretary general), Samson Kapong (treasury general), Professor Dr Bilcher Bala (deputy secretary general), Jason Tan (Supreme Council member), George Gaing (president of PELSA) and Martin Akat (supreme advisor of PELSA).