Claims of Putrajaya abandoning Sarawak ‘baseless, untrue’ – Guan Eng

PUTRAJAYA: Accusations by the Sarawak government stating that the federal government has abandoned Sarawak in terms of infrastructure development are ‘baseless and untrue’, says Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

He pointed out that as promised, the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-led federal government had provided more allocations for development in Sarawak under Budget 2019, that those in Budget 2018 allocated by the previous administration under Barisan Nasional (BN).

“The allocation for development in 2019 just for projects in Sarawak alone is RM4.3 billion, which is the second largest allocation for states in Malaysia, after Sabah.

“For 2019, Sabah has an allocation of RM5 billion for development.

“These allocations do not take into consideration projects such as the Pan Borneo Highway, which is funded through loans at the federal government level,” Lim said in a statement released yesterday.

The accusations came after the Finance Ministry had announced that 49 projects worth RM2.28 billion were being carried out in Sandakan.