State to form Research Devt Council soon
KUCHING: The state government will soon be forming the Research Development Council to oversee the activities of research and development in the state.
Bodies such as Sarawak Biodiversity Centre and local universities will be working closely with the new council tasked with ensuring that researches are well coordinated and the outcomes put to good use, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
Besides that, the state government always welcomes new ideas from the public and innovative ideas through research and development ( R& D) are also welcomed, he said in his text of speech read by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas at the reunion dinner of former staff of Sarawak Land Development Board ( SLDB) at a hotel here on Sunday night.
“To do research and develop finding is not a cheap thing to do but it has to be done and budgeted for in order to add value to raw materials.
“And the return can be enormous compared to just exporting raw materials such as log timber, glass and oil,” Abang Johari pointed out.
“For this reason, in the last cabinet reshuff le I have set up a ministry to look after science and technological research to oversee R& D via the Research Development Council that will
To do research and develop finding is not a cheap thing to do but it has to be done and budgeted for in order to add value to raw materials. And the return can be enormous compared to just exporting raw materials such as log timber, glass and oil. Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, Chief Minister
be formed soon,” he said.
The Chief Minister encouraged the former SLDB staff to gather all of their hidden talents and expertise to assist and increase the agricultural productivity of the state.
Uggah, who is also Minister for Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development, commended the former staff for setting up a cooperative for its 400 registered members to do some social work that benefits them and the public as a whole.
The cooperative under the name Kosem99 ( Cooperative Semangat Sembilan- Sembilan) has organised a number of small projects, one of which is courses focusing on planting vegetables without using chemicals in Miri. These courses are conducted by former SLDB staff, Awang Othman.
Kosem99 also embarked on health therapy using the Korean infra-red beds called Ceragem.
Apart from these, members of the cooperative are also looking seriously into production of animal roughage using disposed oil palm leaves as they foresaw it as a big business potential.
“Oil palm leaves are usually left discarded and left to rot but if they are processed to become things like animal feed they can fetch good value.
“If we can add value to oil palm leaves, I believe it can benefit a lot of people especially our oil palm planters. This culture of R& D is something that we want to imbue among our industries and entrepreneurs.
“I wish all of you former SLDB staff and employees every success in all the things you do to help enhance our productivity,” said Abang Johari.
Among the 230 diners were the event organising advisor Ahmad Ebon, organising chairman Razali Jahari and 82-year- old former chairman of SLDB, Wan Habib Mahmud.
The dinner saw several former staff catching up with one another.
They had their inaugural reunion dinner on Sept 9 in Miri this year.
Out of the 400 former SLDB staff, 100 had passed away, which was why the reunion dinner on Sunday night was attended by their family members as their representatives.