Technical agencies, utilities urged to support industrial park development

KOTA KINABALU: International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Dr Ong Kian Ming has urged technical agencies and utility providers to come on board and be proactive in supporting investors in industrial park development.

In making the call, he said for Sabah to attract the type of quality investments it desired, the state needed a good industrial park that can meet the requirements of these industries.

He said it was important to find win-win solutions and not to keep investors waiting for infrastructure to be built especially in the provision of electricity, water and roads as these are the basic infrastructure needs for any industry to operate.

“For example, to make Sabah an aerospace hub, industrial parks such as the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park need to be enhanced to develop an aerospace industry cluster. Having upstream and downstream industry players in close proximity improve speed and cost of production,” he said in his speech during the launching of the Industrial Park and Investment Facilitation Forum yesterday.

Ong said for the first nine months of this year, Sabah continued to attract additional approved investment of RM140.9 million, mainly in basic metal products, food manufacturing and petroleum products including petrochemicals and non-metallic mineral products.

He said as of December last year, a total of 761 manufacturing projects with investments worth RM15.1 billion had been implemented in Sabah.

“More than 90,000 jobs have been created for these projects, part icularly in the food manufacturing, paper, printing and publishing, wood and wood products, chemical and chemical products, and non- metal lic products sectors,” he said.

Meanwhi le, Mal aysi an InvestmentDevelopmentAuthority ( MIDA) Senior Execut ive Director, Strategic Planning and Development, Zabidi Mahbar, said MIDA would continue to attract foreign and domestic investments not only in Peninsular Malaysia, but also in Sabah and Sarawak.

He said Sabah is certainly one of Malaysia’s destinations for investment.

“Tomorrow ( Tuesday) there will be 19 eager investors from 11 companies flying to Sabah to explore the opportunities available in the areas of oil and gas, logistics, engineering services, infrastructure development and consulting services for their expansion plans,’ Zabidi added.

The one-day forum was attended by over 250 participants from various fields, including business chambers, local authorities, park developers and managers, utility companies, manufacturers and potential investors. — Bernama