Sharifah Hasidah: More revenue for development if state’s rights returned

KUCHING: Sarawak will have more revenue to bring about development to its people if the state’s rights including over oil and gas could be recovered.

As such, the Sarawak government will not cease its negotiations with the federal government for the return of the state’s rights, Assistant Minister of Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali said.

“Sarawak is in negotiations with the federal government to get back our rights including the oil and gas. If we can recover our rights, we will receive more revenue.

“And this revenue will be channelled to implementing development projects across the state of Sarawak,” she said before Assistant Minister of Rural Electricity Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi performed the earth-breaking for a Rural Electrification Scheme ( RES) project in Kpg Ulu Sungai Sinjan at Jalan Layang-Layang in Petra Jaya here yesterday.

Last month, chairman of the Sarawak Consultative Committee on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar, announced that Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg would lead a delegation to attend a meeting with the federal Steering Committee in Kuala Lumpur next Monday (Dec 17).

Sharifah Hasidah pledged that the Sarawak government will continue spending allocations on developing and upgrading basic utilities for Sarawakians.

“We will continue to provide electricity supply to all. More importantly, we want the people to understand that we support what is good for the people.”

On the RES project, she said she was happy with the swift action taken by the Ministry of Utilities.

Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) is the implementing agency of the project.

She recalled that this project was brought to the attention of Dr Abdul Rahman two months ago.

“I told Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman after a visit two months ago, that villagers here need power supply. Now it is being implemented; this shows the commitment of the ministry and the Sarawak government.

“This is a state-funded project and we hope that it will be completed before Hari Raya (Aidilfitri) next year,” added Sharifah Hasidah.