Phoong: Sabah should start industrialisation to reduce cost of doing business
KOTA KINABALU: It is important for Sabah to embark on industrialisation in order put down the cost of doing business in the state, said Minister of Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Datuk Phoong Jin Zhe.
Speaking at the Blue Chem Marketing Sdn Bhd’s Chinese New Year celebration on Wednesday, Phoong said there are many factors happening globally resulting in shortage and high cost of materials for business, such as construction and others.
“As an Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Minister, I support companies like Blue Chem for providing construction needs from material supply to aftersales support.
“I always support the business ecosystem including suppliers and traders, but I also want to emphasise that this year is a very important year for our manufacturing development, especially industrialisation.
“The government also encourages local traders to embark or transform themselves into manufacturing. We need more factories coming up because we need to facilitate our local entrepreneurs,” he said.
Phoong added with the disruptions due to wars in Ukraine and Palestine, China-US trade war and even USD-Ringgit exchange has caused delays, shortages and other problems in the supply chain, leading to increased costs and decreased customers’ satisfaction.
“As a trader everyone can feel the uncertainties in term of supply chain, import and export. So this is important for us to embark on industrialisation so that we can put down the cost of doing business in Sabah.
“The environment is still small so need to work with our own industrial players to build up this industry in Sabah,” he added.
Meanwhile, Blue Chem director Allen Wong said the company was formed in 2017 but had been in the business since 2011.
“Our range of products are premixed based specifically formulated to cater the evergrowing construction needs and providing solutions to the problems encountered by most of the building and construction industries.
“Our products also allow construction sites to improve operational efficiency by shorter construction timeline and better quality of work,” he said.
Among the products supplied by Blue Chem are waterproofing, concrete repair, tile adhesive, power tools, specialised tools, industrial and commercial floor coating and plastering and skim coating.
Blue Chem is located at Lot 13, Lorong Buah Duku 3, Jalan Kolombong, Off Mile 5 1/2, Jalan Tuaran, Inanam.