The Bioeconomy Promise
A few days ago Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal commented that there should be green initiatives to help spur the green economic agenda of the state. In this line of thought, what could be better than bioeconomic projects? In an opinion piece published last year, Sabah Minister of Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Wilfred Tangau wrote that bioeconomy had high potential for investment in Sabah. Thanks to its muchvaunted natural resources, the state is a prime location for bioeconomic development. In 2017, the Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corporation made an effort to boost bioentrepreneurship in Sabah, and even Datuk SeribMusa Aman, former Chief Minister of Sabah, has jumped on the bandwagon, expecting extensive investments in the field for the state.
A lot of bioeconomy revolves around the forest, its products and byproducts. But where are the huge returns that Sabahans should have been seeing in the past few years?
According to the Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corporation, the GNI produced by bioeconomic projects in the country should reach RM25.25 billion in 2020, with investments of RM50 billion and 170,000 job opportunities.
It is only now that we’re seeing some sort of growth happening. Just a few months ago, a RM13 billion plant is planned to be built in Lahad Datu. The petrochemical plant by Burel Industries will process petroleum byproduct and is supposed to ship out 70,000 containers every year. Also situated in the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster in Lahad Datu is the RM2 billion biochemical plant by Genting.
A bio-industry hub, the first of its kind in South East Asia, was to be developed by Pelangi Prestasi when they were supposed to take over Sabah Forest Industries last year. The biohub would have included a biorefinery and bioport that would have contributed gross national income of RM19.5 billion and thousands of jobs.
Before that, the biggest bioeconomic project in Sabah had been the Borneo Honey Bee Farm Project that was expected to produce revenue of RM300 million by 2021.
With our wealth of natural resources, I’m sure that we can achieve so much more than this when it comes to bioeconomic and biotech projects around Sabah. With a renewed focus on a green agenda by the state government, I look forward to this happening in greater numbers in Sabah’s future.