Ali asks for breakdown of jobs created by SCORE

KRIAN assemblyman Ali Biju wants the state government to give a detailed breakdown of the number of jobs created by Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) and number of Sarawakians who have benefitted from this mega-project.

He said previous speeches had repeatedly reminded the august House that the much-touted SCORE would create two million jobs in Sarawak.

He said if indeed SCORE did create employment and become the main catalyst for economic growth of the state, then Sarawakians should not be made to wait till they see SCORE empower Sarawakians economically.

Ali also asked the government on how they would reconcile the small number of job vacancies with the huge number of unemployed jobseekers in the labour market today.

He notedthegovernment insisted that labour market conditions were expected to remain favourable while the figures simply did not add up.

Furthermore, he said, the Civil Service has announced minimising new intakes, which means minimal applications will be entertained.

“It is clear that jobs will not increase, and this will lead to further aggravating the unemployment issue which is especially plaguing the youth of Sarawak,” he said when debating the state budget.

Ali pointed out that the state’s official figures showed that job vacancies reported was 40,915, which was mainly in the agriculture, construction, and manufacturing sectors.

He, however, said the Statistics Department recorded that in 2016, there were 169,527 job applications, of which 40,834 were from graduates who applied for jobs in the State Civil Service.

Ali also asked the government to update the august House on the allocated budget for the Bukit Sadok Agropolitan Project which covers an estimated area of 295,571 hectares covering Sri Aman, Betong and Sarikei divisions.

He inquired if this project would be implemented using the RM223 million allocation announced by the Chief Minister when tabling the state budget.

“Further, a task force was formed to accelerate the development of the mega-project and chart its direction, strategise business model and action plan, as reported in this august House on May 16 this year.

“Six months have passed. Can the minister in charge please kindly give us the current status and a comprehensive report of the Bukit Sadok Agropolitan Project’s task force work?”