Sarawak plans to build 600 more telecom towers by 2020
KUCHING: Sarawak will build an additional 600 telecommunication towers statewide by 2020 under the state’s digital economy strategy. Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said the tender for the first 300 towers to local network facility providers closed on Nov 12.
“The location of these (new) towers have been chosen based on the critical needs of areas and their ability to act as collector and intermedi- ary to other towers in the rural areas,” he said in the state assembly yesterday.
Johari said the next phase of the plan would be to increase coverage and penetrate deeper into rural areas.
“For this, another 300 towers will be built to achieve mobile coverage for 99.9% of populated areas in the state. We expect to see unrestricted choice of preferred mobile network providers for the general public throughout Sarawak of affordable and quality telecommunications and broadband access,” he said.
Last year, Johari announced a RM2bil state allocation to fund the digital infrastructure projects.
Sarawak plans to boost its digital economy with a targeted 17.4% contribution to the state’s gross domestic product by 2025 from 2.3% this year.
On the Sarawak government’s decision to impose a 5% sales tax on petroleum products from Jan 1, 2019, Johari said the products that are to be sold locally would be exempted from the sales tax.
The new tax will be levied on crude oil, natural gas, liquified natural gas, chemical-based fertilisers as well as gas-to-liquid products.
Johari had said earlier that the sales tax on petroleum products was expected to raise nearly RM3.9bil for the state coffers, with the money to be used partly to fund the many development projects.
Under the Sarawak Sales Tax Ordinance 1998, the state has been imposing a sales tax on crude palm oil, crude palm kernel, lottery tickets and tyres. Next year, the state is expected to collect RM445mil in sales tax from palm oil and crude palm kernel, RM90mil from lottery and RM30mil from tyres.