The Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) development plan has outlined three main thrusts to develop the state from 2021 to 2025. The three thrusts were based on the SMJ slogan where “S” refers to the three main economic sectors covering agriculture, industry and tourism; the letter “M” refers to human capital and the well-being of the people; while the letter “J” refers to green infrastructure and sustainability networks.
The three main SMJ thrusts will be driven by five enablers, namely fiscal sustainability, financial facilities, effective and efficient delivery, excellence in integrity and governance, and digital government. The five implementation objectives of the SMJ plan have also been outlined, namely to build a united, peaceful and prosperous state and society; to optimise state resources and revenue; stimulate economic recovery; improve the people’s economy and improve human capital.
The SMJ plan would move in line with the national development agenda under the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, and was a manifestation of the commitment as pledged by the GRS in the 16th state election last year. To ensure the SMJ roadmap achieves its goals, every core and enabler would be supported by various initiatives. To date, a total of 584 initiatives covering 304 core initiatives and 280 enablers have been drafted for implementation starting year 2021.
Lok Kawi Resort City Development To Drive SMJ plan Initiative
Lok Kawi Resort City consists of theme parks, resort hotels, shopping complexes, commercial and office blocks as well as residential, which would be developed on 166.3 hectares in Lok Kawi, Putatan with a gross development value (GDV) of RM7 billion. As one of the forward moves in Sabah tourism sector, the project is expected to boost the conducive environment for the tourism sector especially in mitigating the number of accommodation rooms and resorts in Sabah, as well as providing at least 5,000 job opportunities when fully operational.
MoUs for Foreign/Domestic Investment Initiatives
MoUs between Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park Sdn Bhd (KKIP) and SK Nexilis Co Ltd
The South Korea-based copper foil manufacturer for vehicles has agreed to invest abroad and chose Sabah as an investment destination. The investment involved a total of RM23 billion and is expected to create 500 jobs for the initial phase while the construction of the plant that is targeted to start operations in 2023 is expected to further increase port utilisation by 10,000 twenty-foot equivalents (TEUs) a year.
MoUs between Sabah state government and Linaco Group of Companies
The MoU would involve a large-scale cultivation and processing of coconuts namely high-yield hybrid coconut palms followed by the development of integrated coconut processing plants to optimise the production of coconut-based products. As a leading company supplying coconut-based products to over 40 countries, Linaco will purchase all harvested coconuts through integrated coconut cultivation. A centre of excellence will also be developed to monitor the implementation of the project’s best practices. The coconut processing plant will be operational as soon as possible with an initial investment estimated at RM200 million.
Source: Bernama & Images: Yayasangroup