KOTA KINABALU: The recent decision by the Federal
Government in approving a special Investment Incentive Package for the
Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) is poised to further intensify the
investment momentum in the state.
Describing
the announcement of the incentive as timely, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk
Seri Musa Aman said the package would cover activities in, among
others, the tourism, manufacturing and agriculture sectors and major
industries.
These incentives are available for investment in
designated Strategic Development areas, clusters and flagship projects
including the Kinabalu Gold Coast Enclave, Sabah Agro-Industrial
Precinct (SAIP), Sandakan Education Hub, Sabah Oil and Gas Industrial
Park (SOGIP), Interior Livestock Valley, Marine Integrated Cluster and
the Lahad Datu Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC), he said.
“The
incentives will vary based on the focus areas, offering incentives such
as full tax exemption on statutory income for up to 10 years, investment
tax allowance of 100 per cent on qualifying capital expenditure for
five years, and full exemption on import duty and sales tax exemption,
subject to current policy.
“The period for tax incentives is for
applications received by the Sabah Economic Development & Investment
Authority (SEDIA) up until Dec 31, 2020,” he said in his speech at the
12th meeting of members of SEDIA at Wisma SEDIA near here today.
His speech was read by Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan.
Musa,
who is also chairman of SEDIA, said the state and national budgets for
2013 would further intensify the development momentum in Sabah.
He
said the state government had provided a higher allocation for the year
2013 as compared to the 2012 budget. “The 2013 Budget Strategy has been
planned and formulated with emphasis on efforts that will ensure
continuous prosperity and the people’s well-being in line with the 2013
Budget theme, ‘Consolidated Efforts Towards Continuous Prosperity Of The
People’.
“The Supply Expenditure for the year 2013 is the biggest
in the State’s budget financial history totalling RM4.088 billion,” he
said.
Musa said Sabah is a blessed state located along the
maritime silk route linking the vibrant East Asian economies to the rest
of the world.
Sabah has the potential to leverage on its
strategic position to link the rapidly growing BIMP-EAGA sub-region to
the dynamic North East Asian economies, he added.
“Its economy
recorded an average growth of 5.3 per cent between 2007 and 2010, which
is 1.1 per cent higher than the national growth rate over the same
period.
“We are expecting the State’s economic growth to be
resilient in the face of global economic uncertainties, expanding at
about five to six per cent.
“I believe the measures introduced in
aligning the SDC with the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP),
Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the 10th Malaysia Plan
coupled with the progress made in the implementation of SDC projects,
especially the SDC Flagship Projects such as the POICs in Sandakan and
Lahad Datu, Sandakan Education Hub, Oil and Gas Clusters, Keningau
Integrated Livestock Centre, Kinabalu Gold Coast Enclave, Sabah
Agro-Industrial Precinct and Agropolitan Projects, have succeeded in
boosting business confidence in Sabah,” he said.
He said these
developments had encouraged more private investors to consider
participating in new investment projects, Entry Point Projects (EPPs)
and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Sabah.
Musa noted with
satisfaction that Sabah had also emerged as one of the top investment
destinations in Malaysia, which itself had emerged as one of the world’s
top 10 Foreign Direct Investment destinations.
“It is however
important to recognise that our ability to continue attracting
investments is dependent on our ability to provide the right quality of
human capital, more so as we move to become more knowledge-intensive.
Human capital development, apart from being a crucial factor in driving
our economy and achieving the target to become a high-income and
developed nation, is clearly one of the key determinants to attract
private investment as this will be one of the major considerations of
investors.
“As SDC has attracted an impressive amount of private
investment, at about RM114 billion since its launch in 2008, it is
therefore important to ensure that there is a sufficient pool of human
resources with the required skills to meet the manpower requirements of
the investors,” he said. – BERNAMA
