Insdustrial Development : Manpower training for agriculture

To upgrade the cultivation of food crops and agriculture generally the Government has allocated RM9.3 million under the 9 Malaysia Plan (9 Malaysia Plan) to further improve training quality at the Sabah Agriculture Institute (IPS) in Timbang Menggaris. Of this amount RM5.5m comes from the State Government while the remaining RM3.8m is federal allocation. At the same time, the University of Malaysia Sabah (UMS) is also setting up the UMS School of Sustainable Agriculture in Sandakan to meet the future manpower needs of Sabah’s agricultural sector. On the marketing and distribution side, the Federal Agriculture Marketing Agency (FAMA) has its FAMA Sabah Marketing Complex at KKIP to step up its effort in marketing locally produced agriculture and agro-based products. The Chief Minister said the setting up of distribution centres in certain districts is also likely to assist in boosting marketing efficiency and to become a supporting factor in promoting value-added activities for agriculture products in the State. As one of the three pillars of the state government’s “Halatuju” agenda for development, the industrial sector is in the forefront of Sabah’s efforts to spur the State’s economic growth. Rich in natural resources, Sabah has in recent years increased the value-added contents of its commodity exports. Value of exported manufactured
goods increased from RM2.6 billion in year 2003 to RM4.3 billion in 2008, with annual average growth of 8.7 per cent. Investment promotion programmes in manufacturing industry involving Small & Medium Industry (SMI) in Sabah includes the Sabah International Exhibition (SIE), Borneo International Trade Fair (BITF) and Buy Sabah- Made Product Expo. In the state government’s 2010 budget a sum of RM136.64 million has been set-aside to support the state’s technology-oriented Industry in Sabah to add value in the existing industries. An additional RM20.0 million has also been allocated for the expansion of POIC in Lahad Datu and a further RM30.0 million and RM4.0 million as equity investment in KKIP and POIC respectively. As the star performer of Sabah’s commodity exports oil palm offers much room for the manufacturing sector.
Currently Sabah has 1.4 million hectares planted with oil palm. In the past few years, the agricultural sector contributed about 29 per cent towards Sabah Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Sabah is still the leading producer of palm oil in Malaysia contributing 32 per cent of the nation’s total production of oil palm, and 15 per cent of the world’s total production of oil palm in 2008. Oil palm growers including smallholders earned
enormous profits in 2007 and generated export incomes of RM45.1 billion for the country, 41.8 per cent more than in 2006. The government will continue to contribute RM30.00 million to the palm oil smallholders’ special fund to help the smallholders. To optimize the huge investment potentials of taking our primary commodities up the value-chain, the government has given a great deal of support to the main industry players, especially the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) and Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC).