One of the development strategies of SCORE is to drive investments for the development of priority industries in Tanjung Manis in the South, Mukah in the centre, Samalaju in the North and Tunoh in the hinterland. The areas, except for Mukah, once an idyllic town with the history of producing a lot of seafarers, the others are green areas that will be developed as new growth nodes.
SCORE development area is located in the central region and stretches 320 kilometres along the coast from Tanjung Manis to Samalaju and extends all the way into the surrounding areas and the extensive and remote hinterland. It covers an area of 70,709sq.km with a population of 607,800 people.
The other strategies are to create a well designed network of industrial class transportation and communication infrastructure, fast forward the development of energy, accelerate human capital development and develop the tourism industry with focus on the natural attractions.
Basically, the development of SCORE will be spearheaded by the development of the five new growth nodes and a number of secondary growth centers towards the year 2030. Tanjung Manis is being developed to become industrial port city and Halal hub. It is strategically located at the delta of Rajang River, the longest waterway in Malaysia.
Tanjung Manis, an area comprising of seven islands, has a total area of 77,000 hectares to make it the biggest Halal hub project in Malaysia. Hence, it has large land bank available for the development of Halal industries such as agriculture, aquaculture, and other industries. The Halal hub was established with the objective to develop and promote Halal industries namely aquaculture, agriculture, biotechnology, food processing, other high value Halal and green technology and other supporting industries.
Its concept is based on the following guiding principles: Green development with carbon credit policy; Extensive green environment impact assessment (EIA) policy to ensure sustainability; Usage of green energy and environment friendly practices; Clean environment with guided control on development policies; and Promote organic, chemical and pesticide free and sustainable development.
The development of Tanjung Manis Halal hub will comprise the following major components: Tanjung Manis new township; Tanjung Manis new airport; New Halal hub seaport; Agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture development; Hotel, commercial and housing development; Resort and leisure development; Healthcare village; and Major infrastructure and info structure development projects.
Chief Minister, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud has often stated that the development of Halal hub at Tanjung Manis is a pragmatic branding of efforts to reach the world’s Halal market, which is growing and now roughly estimated at RM3 trillion. The concept has nothing to do with the desire to confine Sarawak, Malaysia for that matter to serve Muslim population all over the world.
He says developed countries in the west are trying very hard to exploit the World Halal market. Hence, there is no reason why Malaysia, which is well recognized as a Muslim nation and respected for its quality handling of food, should not to take full advantage of the situation.
In his recent speech to declare open the inaugural Borneo Bio conference, he says in the case of Sarawak and Sabah both states never have the occasions to experience diseases in relation to animals. Besides, Sarawak does not concentrate on getting beef or lamb from the South only but works to realize own potentials in food production.
Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the Halal hub at Tanjung Manis should be the focal point for the development of large scale agro-base industries and for food processing. Rajang Delta, once a great liability because of soft soil and it is riddled by big rivers, now provides opportunities for aquaculture.
An international firm has found out that Rajang Delta, with good quality of water, is the best place to breed fish or sea food in a bigger scale. Similar place cannot be found in other parts of the country. Obviously, nature has provided Sarawak a nice environment and location for a big aquaculture project. It was used to be a nightmare for the State government to develop Rajang Delta.
Generally, Tanjung Manis represents a good area to produce high quality food. The overall plan for the development of Tanjung Manis is to develop Sarikei and Bintangor, the traditional food growing areas to become green basket areas. The food being produced on commercial basis, with good logistic support can go straight to Sibu to be exported to China, India or any other places where there is a growing need for food.
Undoubtedly, the development of Sarikei and Bintangor to become green basket entails the upgrading of agricultural apparatus and improvement of the system of agriculture. In this regard, the processing of food will be subjected to strict supervision from the points of view of public health. Ultimately, the new development will turn Sarikei and Bintangor to become a leading bio-tech park in the State.
The area between Tanjung Manis and Mukah has been planted with big quantity of sago and can boast to have the first sago plantation in the world. They will mature quite soon to enable the State to predict the outcome of sago plantation for the purpose of upgrading sago based industries. Understandably, many technologies have been introduced both for producing food and prospecting bio-diesel and encountering pollution problems. They are good developments that have come out from the proper strategies.
Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says Sarawak will approach the central agencies probably research institutions and central agencies for their services as the State becomes more active in the development of biotechnology. The State government has been trying to understand the whole spectrum of bio-technology by participating in its development. For example, it is actively studying one of the cocktails against AIDS; the cocktail is unique because it can create a brain barrier.
As bio-technology is wide field, any countries that have the intention to develop bio-tech industries must deal with research institutions, universities before they come formulate strategies that can trigger development. Of course big projects should be led by big corporation while the small ones can be developed as cottage or kampong industries.
Essentially, all the development of bio-tech industries must be carried out based on the voluminous research works that have been done by hundreds of scientists. Hence, Sarawak must formulate a broad strategy that can be worked out in greater details using the advantages that have been triggered through successful efforts in the past.
However, the patterns of development between Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah are quite different. For example, the emphasis for Peninsular Malaysia is moving toward the consolidation of agricultural products. Sarawak or Sabah for that matter may still rely on the development of potentials of bio-tech wealth, which may require more upstream research works.
In other words, the research works in basic agriculture and life sciences may still be relevant in Sarawak and Sabah. Besides, the strategy for Sarawak must take into account advantages that can be exploited from the vast resources in the development of agriculture. The state has developed quite well the management of estates or plantations since the middle of 80s.
Pehin Sri Abdul Taib says the State must take into account the question of incorporating research input into plantations, agricultural practices and trying to take advantages of various products and their sub-components for better commercial potentials as a result of the economy of scale. More importantly, the products must reach the market sufficiently.
Basically, the State must study ways to diversify usage of products from the estates or plantations. Besides, efforts must be made to ensure better control of the environment and prevention of pollution of rivers and jungles in the development large-scale development of agriculture.
He says the setting up Sarawak Biodiversity Centre manifests the state’s long – term interests to be involved actively in the development of bio – tech industries as being done at the national – level. Now the centre is in the process of collecting all the folklores to ensure that the medicinal values of bio resources can continue to be used for treating the health of people.
Later, the biodiversity centre will zoom into areas, which have been proven to be quite effective in tackling the health problem. It may even go deeper into embracing the new medicinal introduction consistent with the development of technology in the era of continuous modernization.
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