Consul General of Malaysia to Pontianak Azizul Zekri Abd Rahim. — Photo by Nur Shazreena Ali
PONTIANAK (April 19): The Malaysian Consulate in West Kalimantan is actively exploring new investment opportunities through the development of Pantai Temajuk in West Kalimantan.
Consul General of Malaysia to Pontianak Azizul Zekri Abd Rahim said Pantai Temajuk, which is located near the Sarawak-Kalimantan border in Telok Melano, would be a gamechanger for Sarawak in boosting its medical health tourism.
“We are looking for more investors from Sarawak to come invest in West Kalimantan — for example, last year we invited chambers of commerce to come visit West Kalimantan and this year, we invited the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers to visit here.
“This is one of our cooperation programmes with the Indonesian Consulate General to Malaysia in Kuching,” he said when met at the Mercure Hotel in Pontianak during a ‘Sarawak Media Familiarisation Trip to West Kalimantan’ programme on Thursday.
Azizul said constructing tourism facilities such as hotels, resorts and entertainment venues at Pantai Temajuk would not only boost the economy but change the whole tourism landscape.
He said Malaysian companies should take advantage of this trend, given the promising prospects in medical tourism in Sarawak as last year alone, over 80 per cent of West Kalimantan citizens came to Sarawak for that purpose.
Meanwhile, he said there are huge opportunities to develop Pantai Temajuk as the beach, which sprawls 55km, is still untouched and not fully developed.
“One of them is to develop a resort at Pantai Temajuk — last year, the West Kalimantan government asked Malaysia if we could help them develop tourism at Pantai Temajuk. This year and last year, we were able to bring some investors from Malaysia to come to Kalimantan.”
Azizul however recognised the spillover impact this development might have, and said the consulate is gearing up its ongoing collaboration with Indonesia’s tourism sector through the development of small and medium enterprises.
“Our cooperation is very active. For your information, we not only supervise West Kalimantan but the whole province of Kalimantan. Just last year, we held a promotional programme in Balikpapan in East Kalimantan to promote our tourism.
“Now we are actively promoting the tourism products of SMEs from West Kalimantan. ONe of the product districts is from the Singkawang and Pontianak areas,” he said, adding the consulate would continue its engagement with the provincial government.
When asked about the progress of the development project at the West Kalimantan-Sarawak border, he said the government has already made plans for it.
“We already have a plan and hopefully it will begin in the near future,” he said.
