Minister enlists Sabah govt's support for palm oil campaign
KOTA KINABALU: Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok is enlisting the support of the Sabah government for her 'Love MY OilPalm' campaign in response to Europe's anti-palm oil campaign.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew said she met Teresa at the recent opening of the second session of the 14th Parliament in Kuala Lumpur.
"Teresa shared her concerns over the current anti-palm oil campaigns in Europe. She will be coming to Sabah next month to meet Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and myself on the issue at hand.
'We have to counter those unfounded campaigns in our efforts to protect the oil-palm industry in Malaysia. That is the challenge facing our country," she said.
Christina, who is also Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, dispelled the notion among anti-palm oil campaigners abroad that deforestation was taking place in Sabah to make way for oil-palm plantations.
On a similar note, she said the State Government is on the threshold of creating a sustainable 'green food corridor' in the Kinabatangan area for the survival of wildlife, particularly elephants, so that they won't encroach into oil-palm plantations for food.
Kok is travelling throughout the country to garner support for her 'Love MY Oil-Palm' campaign which aims to promote Malaysia's leading commodity.
The European Union (EU) bloc is one of the three leading importers of Malaysian palm-oil, along with China and India.
In April 2017, the European Parliament passed a palm oil resolution, which would eliminate the use of palm oil biodiesel or palm methyl ester (PME) from Malaysia and Indonesia in biofuels if enforced in 2020.
PME converted from crude palm oil (CPO) can be used as an alternative field in biodiesel engines.
Since the end of last year, several members of the EU have passed similar anti-palm oil laws in their respective countries. These include Switzerland, France and Norway.