SCORE top investment draw

KUCHING: Despite the challenging global economic environment Sarawak has fared well by attracting the most proposed capital investment in the country for the first eight months of this year, Industrial Development Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said.

“Statistics from Mida (Malaysian Investment Development Authority) show that Sarawak leads the total capital investments with proposed value of RM7.3 billion.

“Johor is second with RM6 billion and Selangor is third with RM5.9 billion, reaffirming the Sarawak Barisan government’s efforts, good achievement and confidence in developing the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) in pursuit of attaining a high income economy by 2020,” he said.

Awang Tengah, who is also Second Resource Planning and Environment Minister, said this when delivering his winding up speech during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting yesterday.

He added that out of the total investments of RM7.3 billion approved, RM4.2 billion or 57.5 per cent came from Domestic Direct Investments (DDI) while RM3.1 billion or 42.5 percent came from Foreign Direct Investments (FDI).

He said that these investments, comprising 60 projects, were expected to generate 5,293 employment opportunities.

He enlightened the august house that major sources of FDI came from United Arab Emirates (UAE) with an investment of RM2.2 billion in chemical product (poly silicon), Hong Kong with an investment of RM280 million mainly in basic metal (metallic silicon) and Japan with an investment of RM158 million mainly in basic metal (manganese).

In updating the House on the success of SCORE, Tengah said that as of August this year RM28.55 billion worth of investments flowed into SCORE through 14 mega projects.

“These approved investments are predominantly in the energy-intensive industries such as aluminum smelting plants, polycrystalline silicon, metallic silicon and ferro alloy projects,” he added.

Eleven of the projects are located atSamalajuIndustrial Park, out of which four companies, namely Press Metal Bintulu Sdn Bhd, Tokuyama Corporation Japan, Asia Minerals Ltd (Hong Kong) and OM Holdings Ltd (Singapore) have already commenced construction works.

Two companies, a biotech and the other an agro-based, have commenced operation at Tanjung Manis Halal Hub, while the aluminum smelting plant at Mukah has been in operation since 2009.

“These particular SCORE projects are expected to generate more than 10,000 job opportunities besides creating vast business opportunities through the spin-off effects,” he disclosed.

Meanwhile, with regard to issues raised by Baru Bian (PKR-Ba Kelalan) in the assembly during the earlier part of the sitting, Tengah said that there were 10 priority industries that were aggressively promoted and developed under the SCORE plan.

“The development of these 10 priority industries covers all sectors of the economy. In the primary sector, the focus will be the development of oil palm and planted forests, aquaculture and livestock.

“To illustrate this point, the produce of these primary industries, for example crude palm oil will move to the secondary sector for processing and manufacturing into intermediate and finished products to add more value to the local produces.

“Invariably, all these processes including delivery of products to end consumers require support services such as logistics, banking and marketing in the tertiary sector.  As such all these economic activities encompass all sectors of the economy,” explained Tengah.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/11/22/score-top-investment-draw/#ixzz1eVMbTAkg