KUCHING, Oct 30 — Sarawak contractors should take advantage of many opportunities involved in the construction of Phase 2 of the Sarawak-Sabah Link Road (SSLR) and the Trans Borneo Highway (LTB) projects.

Caretaker senior works minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said that these two were large allocation projects which required the involvement of contractors from large and small companies.

"These two big projects are worth some RM12 billion, and we expect the construction of these projects to start in the middle of next year.

"(For these projects) we also need to find contractors involved in various aspects including the installation of electric cables and street lights,” he said while speaking at the Bumiputera business empowerment programme here today.

On August 7, caretaker prime minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, said that the federal government had approved Phase 2 of the SSLR and the LTB projects, and construction would begin as early as next year.

Ismail Sabri said that technical research for the Phase 2 SSLR and LTB, connecting Miri, Limbang and Lawas, was currently in the final stage, with construction expected to take three to five years.

The project, he said, not only allows the populace in northern Sarawak to travel to Sabah using two road network options, but would also benefit residents around Mulu, Long Seridan, Nanga Medamit, Long Lopeng, Ba’kelalan, and Merarap, who currently depend on logging roads.

Meanwhile, Fadillah said Bumiputera entrepreneurs need to try to move away from the perception that they are overly dependent on the government for handouts.

"We need to widen our outlook; we are in the state of Sarawak which is a big state with many resources, but our challenge is that the population is not large and the market is limited. We need to accept this as a challenge and create our own opportunities,” he said. — Bernama