No talks yet with state govt on building 3,800 towers – Sacofa
KUCHING: Sacofa Sdn Bhd ( Sacofa) has yet to hold any discussion with the state government on the construction of 3,800 new telecommunication towers throughout the state.
Its managing director Mohamed Zaid Zaini said his company has yet to have the opportunity to meet Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg on the matter since it was announced recently.
“We have yet to have the opportunity to meet him at this time and there has been no briefing on it (so far). We believe the matter is still being discussed at the highest level at this time,” he said in a roundtable with the media in a hotel here yesterday to dispel myths and misconceptions around telecommunication towers.
Zaid affirmed that Sacofa has a solid background as an ICT infrastructure company that has been tasked with delivering the state’s ambitious telecommunications and broadband coverage targets.
He said currently Sacofa has 141 contractors who have specialisation in constructing telecommunication towers, and 120 contractors who are specialised in fibre, and 99 per cent of the company’s contractors are Sarawakians.
Zaid stressed that Sacofa fully supported the announcement by the chief minister regarding the construction of 3,800 telecommunication towers, besides the digital economy initiative and the establishment of Development Bank of Sarawak ( DBOS).
He said to enable more Sarawakians to enjoy broadband connection, more infrastructures such as telecommunication towers need to be built.
“To achieve the target, we have to build more telecommunication towers and probably five times more than what we have thus far.”
Zaid said Sacofa was entrusted to provide telecommunication infrastructure in Sarawak, with the target of achieving a minimum 95 per cent broadband coverage in populated areas by 2020 and 100 per cent coverage for broadband in populated areas by 2030 with a minimum throughput of 30Mbps.
To achieve the state government’s target, he said it requires Sacofa to come up with additional capital for, among others, building towers and providing additional support infrastructures.
Recently, state DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen claimed that the state government’s announcement of RM1 billion to upgrade ICT infrastructure and to build another 5,000 telco towers is just another direct award of a megaproject to a BN crony without tender.
Chong, who is Bandar Kuching MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, said the development of ICT infrastructure can be carried out without the rentseeking and profiteering elements of Sacofa Sdn Bhd.
Chong said while DAP fully supports the development of ICT infrastructure in Sarawak, they object to the way the state BN government goes about doing the said development because the government is giving a private company the power to regulate and monopolistic rights over the development of ICT infrastructure.
“With such regulatory and commercial rights in one company, the state government, when allocating RM1 billion to develop ICT infrastructure, is effectively giving Sacofa a blank cheque of RM1 billion to do as it likes or to build 5,000 telco towers as and where it decides.”
He added that this is tantamount to transfer of the executive power of an elected government to a commercial company.