BINTULU, Feb 18 — The Sarawak government has in its future plan to build wave breakers along the Kemena river estuary, says Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg.

He said this in response to a query by the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, on the siltation issue in the Kemena River estuary which was a cause of concern to the local fishing community.

"Siltation has taken place in the Kemena rivermouth and we are now doing research, whereby the rivermouth will have to be dredged for the construction of the wave breakers.

"Please be patient because it has been included in the plan, but we just need to find funds from our own Sarawak funds,” said the premier when met at the Progressive Democratic Party’s (PDP) Chinese New Year open house at the Civic Centre here today.

"The wave breakers will be connected to the Bintulu Port which is under the purview of the federal government,” he said, thus calling for Tiong, who is also the Bintulu MP, to seek Putrajaya’s grant for the development of Kuala Kemena, as well as for the construction of the wave breakers.

For that matter, Abang Johari, thus, asserted the needs for the state government to take over the Bintulu Port Authority from the federal government.

This, he said, would allow the state government to develop Bintulu, in alignment with the Sarawak Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030.

"Ships no longer use bunker fuel but they use methanol now, and there is only one place in Indonesia that produces methanol but its location is far away,” he said.

Abang Johari, who is also the Bintulu Development Authority chairman, said this on the prospective of creating a bunker industry in Bintulu due to the town’s strategic location of being in the centre of the Asean region.

The minister for natural resources and urban development also highlighted the needs to come up with a comprehensive design for the drainage and irrigation system in Bintulu.

This design, he said, will resolve the flash floods issues and will cover all areas in Bintulu.

"The BDA’s jurisdiction will be expanded to include Sebauh and Tatau districts and with this expansion, the development plans can be implemented holistically in the two districts.

"This will give enable us to develop housing facilities and these areas are also not far from the Pan Borneo Highway,” he said, while calling for the people to work together with the state government towards achieving Sarawak’s goal to become a high-income state by 2030.

"The World Bank acknowledged us as a high-income state in 2023 and this achievement was achieved seven years ahead of our target.

"Now, we want to increase household income in line with our state’s high-income economy, including in the agricultural sector,” he said.

Citing the core objectives of PCDS 2030 which include social inclusivity and environmental sustainability, he said these two aspects would attract foreign investors to come to Sarawak.

"For the stability that we have, the outsiders will have confidence in us and will invest in Sarawak, especially in Bintulu,” he pointed out.

Among those present at the event were PDP president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing; Minister of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom; Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts and Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneurship Development Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah; deputy ministers, as well as Gabungan Parti Sarawak and PDP leaderships. — Borneo Post