China Consul General briefed on BIMPEAGA Business Council programs
KOTA KINABALU: A delegation from the BIMP-EAGA Business Council (BEBC) Malaysia led by its national chairman, Datuk Roselan Johar Mohamed, visited the Consul General office of China in Kota Kinabalu yesterday.
Also in the delegation were BEBC Sabah chairman, Carl Mosoom, BEBC executive secretary, Ms Junzuenn Basalan, and BEBC Kota Kinabalu SME cluster head, N K Foo.
Consul General Liang Caide was on hand to receive the visitors accompanied by Vice Consul, Ms Zhang Qi.
Much of the discussions held were centred on trade matters and connectivity and expanding towards food baskets and research programs. Both sides agree that if Sabah wants to increase its exports, then more emphasis must be concentrated on commercial agricultural production, but not forgetting the manufacturing business.
The hybrid Paulownia tree, if planted over 10,000 hectares, will clearly generate 355,000 containers shipment load for exports when harvested after 5 years.
Paulownia is a light density medium hardwood and ideal for furniture and musical instruments as well as veneers and plywood.
There are 27 species of Paulownia, but only one species has been targeted for tropical planting. Big plantation owners are encouraged to test plant this hybrid version at over 100 acres to justify its suitability before planting on a big scale.
On this matter, the BEBC would be able to provide the necessary guidance, said Roselan in a statement yesterday.
“The export of Paulownia in containers will represent a good load of return cargo to China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Many foreign container vessels have, in the past, avoided Kota Kinabalu port because there were no exports from Sabah in the form of return cargo.
We just cannot make our ports bigger without complementing the effort by generating more exports. This development should go together hand-in-hand. Any reliance on transhipment cargoes can only be wishful thinking because practically every country now wants to attract more ships,” Roselan said.
Malaysia as a whole, he said, imports 3.0 million tonnes of corn for the local animal feed-mill industry, valued at about RM3.2 billion. But planting our own corn will require large chunks of arable land. Hybrid Napier is an alternative to corn, and local planting of Napier will greatly reduce our corn imports and savings on foreign exchange, Roselan added.
Moreover, the commercial planting of Napier can at the same time generate the expansion of the livestock industry because Napier is foliage for these livestock, Roselan said.
“It is the intention of BEBC to invite Chinese planters to jointly invest with local interested parties to achieve a common objective of turning Sabah into a food basket,” said Roselan.