Sarawak's Development To Par With Other States - Adenan

Being the biggest state in Malaysia, Sarawak realised that we are still lagging behind in term of infrastructure development as compared to the more developed states in Peninsular Malaysia.

Chief Minister Datuk Tan Sri Haji Adenan Satem said, Sarawak need to catch up in order to be at par with these developed states especially as Malaysia embarks on its journey to become a developed nation by the year 2020.

"For this reason, we have formulated Sarawak Socio-Economic Transformation Plan (SETP) which is a catch up Plan to develop the State starting from the 11th Malaysia Plan. This is indeed critical as the 11th Malaysia Plan is the last 5 Year Development Plan for us to achieve a high income and developed State status by 2020."

"I will provide further information on the State 11th Malaysia Plan in the next DUN sitting but suffice for me to say that rural transformation is one of the thrusts covered in our 11th Malaysia Plan," he said adding that, with this approach, more infrastructure and economic development will be carried out in the rural areas to benefit the rural communities.

"Sarawak are asking for more development funding from the Federal Government under the 11th Malaysia Plan. We are now working closely with the Federal Government to get more funding than what we have received under the 10th Malaysia Plan."

"In respect to SCORE, I am pleased to inform that SCORE is successful in attracting investors to the State," he said adding that, in view of the encouraging demand, we will continue to develop the SCORE areas but this development requires more funding.

"In this respect, we are working closely with the Federal Government to seek greater funding to develop the SCORE areas and our requests have been forwarded to the Federal Government under the 11th Malaysia Plan. In fact, the Prime Minister himself has visited the Samalaju Industrial Park on 31st March 2015 to see for himself the progress of the Park and in that occasion we have conveyed our request for more funding to him," said Adenan.

He said this in winding-up speech during the State Legislative Assembly Sitting at Petra Jaya, Kuching here today.

On the newly announced creation of new Division, Districts and Sub Districts, Adenan said that, in the past, we started with five divisions, and over time we have increased the number of divisions to seven, nine and eleven.

"Serian is the 12th Division and will start its operation beginning early June this year. As I have mentioned earlier, this will be the special Gawai gift to the people of Serian."

"I would like to announce the establishment of 9 new Districts namely Tebedu, Subis, Beluru, Sebauh, Tanjung Manis, Kabong, Pusa, Telang Usan and Bukit Mabong (Tunoh) and 4 new Sub-Districts namely Bario, Lapok, Mulu and Long Bedian."

He said that, the changes in administrative boundariesthrough the creation of new division, districts and sub districts are to meet the increased expectations of the rakyat in the provision of service delivery and the implementation of programmes and projects.

"Divisional and District Administration is the hallmark of the State Government’s efforts to reach out to the people as these government institutions are important front line agencies that serve the rakyat," he said adding that, the people have always looked high upon the Residents and District Officers to resolve many of the ground issues faced by the rakyat as well as to coordinate and implement projects in the divisions and districts.

Adenan said that, this is in line with our rural transformation programme as all of the new division, districts and sub districts are located in the rural areas.

"Through this exercise, we are expecting more development to take place in these areas in years to come. We have seen how small towns like Samarahan, Mukah and Betong are now transformed to become more vibrant than what they were before and we believe that the new Serian Division and other new districts and sub districts will also enjoy similar socio economic progress."

Touching on the rationalisation of cost of living and cost of doing business, Adenan said that, as a responsible government, we are concerned with the rising cost of living especially among the middle and lower income groups and in respond to these issues, the State Government is taking several measures to reduce the burden of the rakyat. - Sarawakiana