Chong Chieng Jen – Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING (May 9): The state government is urged to stop the export of clean electricity and use clean energy to entice foreign direct investment (FDI) into Sarawak.
In making the call, Chong Chieng Jen (DAP-Padungan) said the state government should also stop the land hoarding practice and accord land to those who truly intend to carry out productive economic activities on their industrial lots to attract FDI.
“In my recent visit to the area around Demak Laut Industrial Park, there are a lot of empty plats of land there, but a check with the ministry’s permanent secretary reveals that all those land were taken.
“These land have been left vacant since the launch of the Demak Laut Industrial Park project,” he said when debating the motion of thanks for the Yang di-Pertuan Negeri’s opening address today.
The Sarawak DAP chairman said the Sarawak government should use its position as the kingmaker of the federal government to get a preferential tax policy favouring FDI in Sarawak, such as granting a 10-year pioneer tax exemption status.
To further attract FDI, Chong said the state government should relax the immigration policy to make it easier for professionals and technical experts to enter Sarawak to work.
“Despite all the hype by the GPS government about multi-million and billions worth of projects, Sarawak’s approved FDI last year only ranked sixth amongst the states in Malaysia with the figure of RM7.8 billion, after Penang (RM61.6 billion), Johor (RM31 billion), Kuala Lumpur (RM30.5 billion), Kedah (RM24 billion) and Selangor (RM17.3 billion).
“Where have we gone wrong? It is my sincere hope that Sarawak will do better this year,” he said.
Taking into consideration the global geopolitical relationship and the trade war and technology war between China and the US, Chong said there is a rush for technology companies to look for a neutral ground and Malaysia has emerged as the first choice.
He noted that the March 11th edition of the Financial Times had titled “Malaysia: the surprise winner from US-China chip wars”.
Despite so, Chong wondered if Sarawak could tap into this pool of investment rush into Malaysia or if the state would remain a bystander.
“Going by the 2023 FDI figures released by Malaysia Investment Development Authority (Mida), it seems that we have not been successful in tapping into this investment rush,” he said.
Chong also urged the state government to adopt some customised and tailor-made efforts and strategies to attract two specific FDIs announced recently.
One of them was the Microsoft’s investment of RM10 billion to develop Malaysia as a hub for cloud computing and related advanced technologies, including generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), he said.
He added that the other one was the announcement by Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz on the impending investment by Google in Malaysia.
