‘24 projects worth RM39.94 bln approved for SCORE since 2008’
KUCHING: Twenty-four projects worth RM39.94 billion have been approved for mega development in Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) since 2008.
Assistant Minister of Entrepreneur and Small, Medium Enterprise (SME) Development Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais said 11 of these approved projects valued at RM19.06 billion are being implemented, creating a total of 10,262 jobs.
“These approved projects are expected to generate a total of 17,828 jobs. We are also having two new investments which have been approved.
“One of the duo is steel project valued at RM17 billion and the other being foaming agent project worth RM500 million,” he said when replying to questions by Jemoreng assemblyman Datuk Murshid Dr Juanda Jaya and Tellian assemblyman Yussibnosh Balo in the august house yesterday.
Naroden, who is Assistant Minister of E-Commerce, said SCORE is presently at its Phase II implementation for the period from 2016 to 2020 with focus on cluster development, value-chain industry and research and development (R&D).
He said the Sarawak government is engaging further efforts to promote SCORE among investors from outside Sarawak and Malaysia.
Apart from that, he said the Sarawak government would continue to put in place various infrastructure including telecommunication services and human resource to a ract foreign investments.
According to him, SCORE is situated between Jemoreng and Tellian, covering a total area of 70,000 sq km.
Since 2017, Naroden said the coverage of SCORE had been extended to 100,000 sq km to include central and northern regions of Sarawak including Limbang and Lawas.
He added that the Mukah division including Jemoreng state constituency had been included in the SCORE development area.
“Jemoreng is strategically located between Mukah and Tanjung Manis which are two important growth nodes of SCORE. Jemoreng can benefit from the development in these areas.”
Naroden told the House that three agencies had been set up under the Regional Corridor Development Authority (Recoda).
They are the Upper Rajang Development Agency (Urda), Highland Development Agency (HDA) and Northern Region Development Agency (NRDA).
These agencies, he said, were established to facilitate and speed up the implementation of various projects within the areas of SCORE.
Towards this end, he pointed out that the Sarawak government had set aside RM1.5 billion each for Urda, HDA and NRDA to provide infrastructure including roads, bridges and electricity and water supply within SCORE areas.
He added that the mega projects had successfully a racted ‘ trigger industries’ such as aluminium smelter, ferro alloys and polycrystalline silicon.
The Sarawak government is presently conducting a study on Rural Growth Centres (RGCs) and Small Isolated Rural Communities towards enhancing the standard of living of the rural folk.
Assistant Minister of Native Land Development Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn said the study, which is carried out by the Sarawak Planning Unit (SPU), aimed at proposing a development plan for improving the standard of living of small isolated rural communities and their surrounding areas in relation to the RGCs.
“This study covers a total of 11 approved RGCs and 15 proposed RGCs and all the 5,000 small isolated rural communities and their surrounding areas outside major towns,” he said when replying to Ngemah assemblyman Alexander Vincent yesterday.
Sagah said a decision will be made on whether to have more RGCs across Sarawak pending the outcome of the study by the SPU under the Chief Minister’s Office.
He said the RGCs are meant to create accessibility and enhance selfsustenance in the rural settlements besides creating sustainable rural economic development for the rural community.
He added that these centres would also offer employment in line with reducing rural-urban migration and rural poverty, thereby enhancing the standard of living among the rural folk.
Sagah pointed out that these RGCs would also play a role in engaging the rural community in the commercial sector to increase their income.
On the components of RGCs, he said they comprised infrastructure amenities, site preparation, access roads and utilities. He added that the Sarawak government also had various economic development and agriculture development programmes that came along with the RGCs.
Assistant Minister of Rural Electricity Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi told the august House that various villages from Lutong to Tudan Desaras Senadin in Miri had been approved for connection of power supply under Additional and Late Applications Fund (Alaf).
“A total of 319 applications have been received so far,” he said in a reply to Piasau assemblyman Datuk Sebastian Ting.
Dr Abdul Rahman added: “Subject to the survey outcome, houses that can be connected will enjoy electricity supply by end of 2019.”