KUCHING, Nov 10 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen has suggested in Parliament that the federal government review the area size of four development corridors with the state governments throughout the country.
The Stampin MP said there is a need to identify smaller areas of certain development corridors in the country, possibly a few thousand square kilometres per area, similar to what is done in the Iskandar Development Region (Wilayah Pembangunan Iskandar).
The four development corridors that he was talking about are the Sabah Development Corridor, Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score), East Coast Economic Region (ECER) and the Northern Economic Corridor Region.
“In my opinion, except for the Iskandar Development Region, the areas designated under the four corridors are too wide so it is difficult for the concentration of development in a specific area.
“(Hence) there is a need to identify certain areas that cover a smaller area (manageable size), possibly a few thousand square km per area, similar to what is done in the Iskandar Development Region.
“Therefore, I suggest that the government review the area of their respective development corridors and discuss with their respective state governments,” he said in his debate speech in Parliament yesterday.
For the record, Chong said the Sabah Development Corridor covers all of Sabah (75,000 square km) while SCORE covers 100,000 square km (or almost 80 per cent of Sarawak’s area).
ECER covers all of Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Mersing districts in Johor and its area is 66,700 square km (or approximately 50 per cent of the area of Peninsular Malaysia) while the Northern Economic Corridor Region has an area of 17,816 square km, covering all of Perlis, Kedah, Penang and part of Perak.
He also opined that after certain areas are identified, only then can certain development be focused in a particular area, saying some can be made into hi-tech industrial areas, some can be made into food production industrial areas, some can be made into agricultural development areas and some can be made into manufacturing areas.
With that, creating many economic clusters in more districts and regions is possible while the desire to improve the balance and inclusiveness of the region, and optimise the economic potential of the region can also be achieved, he reasoned.
In addition to that, Chong hoped that red tape and bureaucracy that slows down the approval process and investment implementation will no longer exist in these corridors.
“I take as an example, the Regional Corridor Development Authority (Recoda) which is responsible for the development of the SCORE area which covers 100,000 square kilometres.
“At the same time, there are also four other state government agencies that are responsible for developing the areas covered by Recoda; namely Upper Rajang Development Authority (Urda), Highland Development Authority (HDA), Northern Region Development Agency (NRDA) and Bintulu Development Authority (BDA).
“In addition, there are Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida), Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti) and also the Sarawak state ministry, namely International Trade and Industry, Industrial Terminal and Entrepreneur Development that are involved.
“The question is the existence of overlapping powers between Recoda and the four Sarawak state development code bodies. So, from the government’s point of view, this is a waste and duplicity of work.
“From the investor’s point of view, it creates red tape and bureaucracy that slow down the investment approval and implementation process,” he said.
Chong also called on relevant ministries to enact policies to attract investors to Sarawak and proposed several measures.
Among the measures and policies that can be implemented, he suggested, are giving special tax incentives and special grants for those who invest and build factories in Sarawak and also improve port facilities in Sarawak.
“The government can also create more Trade and Industrial Free Zones in Sarawak and coordinate the conditions of foreign investment in Sarawak with the state government.
“This is to reduce bureaucracy and speed up the investment approval process, including the process of hiring foreign workers,” he said. — Borneo Post
