Shafie: Budget to develop green economy for Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: A green economy with a thrust towards helping the rural poor through proper land use is on the Parti Warisan Sabah-led state government’s maiden RM4.27bil budget for 2019.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said, when tabling the budget at the Sabah State Assembly sitting Friday, that comprehensive measures were being taken towards developing a green economy that would generate jobs and downstream industries.

Shafie, who is state Finance Minister, said in Danum Valley, Maliau and Imbak Canyon the rainforests are globally recognised for its tropical biodiversity and have the capacity to become Borneo’s carbon sink.

In noting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) warnings on catastrophic consequences of global warming, Shafie said that it was fortunate that the state still holds large tracts of primary forests and intends to generate more forest habitats to protect Sabah’s iconic flora and fauna.

“We cannot do this alone and welcome the global community’s efforts to grow this carbon sink together to fight climate change,” he said as he listed out measures in the Sabah Budget 2019 to protect the state’s rainforests and wildlife while using it for the benefit of the people.

The new government, he said, was departing from the previous administration’s focus on Totally Protected areas and were working towards a land use plan that will address the dual needs of development and conservation as part of affirmative steps in building a green economy including putting in place policies to address global warming.

Shafie said one of the immediate measures taken includes a ban on the export of round logs in favour of higher value downstream industries and a moratorium (suspension) on industrial agriculture in state forest reserves.

“The way Sabah was run by the previous administration is a good example of the abuse of natural resources,” Shafie said as he criticised the previous Sabah Barisan Nasional government led by Tan Sri Musa Aman, who was not present at the assembly.

“There was just too much focus on exploiting the state’s natural capital and too little attention paid to its consequences.”

In tabling the state’s highest budget, he said that they expected a revenue of RM4.27bil with RM1.6bil from oil royalty and RM900mil from the state sales tax on crude palm oil as the main revenue contributors apart from federal allocations while timber royalty revenue is likely to contribute about RM149.5mil to the coffers.

Sabah will impose a 5% tax on exports of fishery products effective Jan 1, 2019 to help ensure sufficient supply is available in the state and also promote Sabah as a seafood heaven for tourism.