KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor has called on young business and industry leaders to partner up with the Sabah government and assist in realising the state’s development agenda for the benefit of the state and the people.
Young business and industry leaders are important partners for the state government in developing Sabah in line with the Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) development plan, he said.
“There is still much more to do for Sabah and I want members of the Sabah Young Business and Industry Leaders (Sybil) to be our partners in progress to realise our development agenda,” he said during an impromptu appearance at the Sybil engagement with the Sabah Economic Advisory Council (SEAC) at Menara Kinabalu here today.
Hajiji said that when he took over as Chief Minister in September 2020, the state government did not waste time restructuring Sabah’s economy.
“We have set a bold target to develop Sabah over a five-year period from 2021 as reflected in our Hala Tuju SMJ development plan.
“To date, we (the current state government) have recorded more than RM12 billion in investments across 90 projects, promising to generate thousands of job opportunities,” he said.
He noted that just last week, a RM20 billion green steel project was announced.
Phase one of the three-phase project at the Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park will begin at the end of this year and be completed in 2026. It is expected to create 2,795 job opportunities during its operational phase.
“Our investor-friendly policies have made Sabah conducive to investments, and we are expecting more investments in the near future,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sybil chairman James Wong said today’s programme was an initiative to assist SEAC in formulating a policy to develop young economic leadership in the state.
“We (Sybil) have helped to mobilise about 100 young business and industry leaders from Sandakan, Tawau and even Kuala Lumpur to come specifically for the event where we had an engagement to see where young industry professionals can add value, support and partner up with the government to help solve real problem,” he said.
He said the programme was purely solution-based and a platform for the young business leaders to brainstorm ways to build a stronger and vibrant future economy for Sabah. - Bernama
