Labuan development foundation to venture into real estate sector

Charity organisation Labuan Development Foundation (YPL) plans to venture into the real estate field by acquiring properties as part of its economic development activities.

Chairman Tan Sri Sukarti Wakiman said the foundation must work harder to gain ownership of properties, including land, to be able to sustain itself in the long run.

“When we have the ownership to properties, we should be able to generate revenue to finance the five core principles of the foundation,” he told reporters a er presenting an appreciation certificate to the Labuan Media Practitioner Association yesterday.

Sukarti stressed that the foundation must stay relevant to Labuan’s economic development needs in line with its core principles to help Labuan folks in the various fields.

The five principles are in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, sports, economic development and charity programmes.

“We need to fine-tune the existing structures (five principles) to tailor them to the current Labuan economic development needs so that YPL is able to generate revenue, thus opening up employment and business opportunities to the locals,” he said.

Sukarti said YPL’s two investment arms -- Labuan Holdings Sdn Bhd, which is taking care of the Labuan International Ferry Terminal, and Pacific Samudera, the management company for the City College -- were performing at their best in the sea transport and education sectors.

“YPL needs to have sufficient funding and to do that, we need to strategise our economic development plans being run by the two companies. For the City College, we need additional funding to add employability and marketable programmes to a ract more students to pursue their studies there, especially the local students,” Sukarti said.

Meanwhile, Labuan Media Practitioner Association president Jainudin Djimin said media practitioners would constantly work together with all associations with the objective of helping the local economy. - Bernama