Kalabakan CIQ important in view of new Indonesian capital, says Hajiji

 

Chief minister Hajiji Noor said the customs, immigration, and quarantine complex would serve as a gateway between Sabah and Nusantara.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government wants the federal government to reconsider its decision to shelve construction of the customs, immigration, and quarantine (CIQ) complex in Serudong, Kalabakan.

Chief minister Hajiji Noor said the CIQ was a very important project for Sabah as it would serve as a gateway between Sabah and Nusantara (East Kalimantan), which would be the new capital of Indonesia.

“We will discuss with the federal government because for us this CIQ is a very important project and cannot be delayed.

“This project is necessary for visitors to enter Sabah,” he said after attending the Sabah Maju Jaya Roadmap’s (SMJ) first year celebration at the Sabah International Convention Centre here today.

Hajiji said the project should be a priority for the federal government so that the entry of visitors to Sabah from Kalimantan could be controlled as well as to avoid the existence of “rat lanes”.

Last Sunday, deputy chief minister Bung Moktar Radin was reported to have said that the decision to delay the construction of the RM600 million CIQS complex in Serudong would hurt Sabah’s economy with the rapid development of Nusantara.

This followed a written reply by works minister Fadillah Yusof to a question by Ma’mun Sulaiman (Warisan-Kalabakan) in Parliament last Wednesday that the Kalabakan CIQS was delayed following a lack of allocations by the finance ministry.

Meanwhile, in his speech at the event, Hajiji said the state government was also in the final stage of concluding negotiations with the federal government on the review of the special grants to Sabah under Article 112D of the Federal Constitution.

He said the state government was also targeting an increase in state revenue, with the exploration of new resources, investment initiatives and various other economic activities, through payments of taxes, land premiums and royalties.

“For 2021, the state government has received a total of RM112.2 million in dividends from statutory bodies and government-linked companies, which is an increase of 12.9% compared to 2020,” he said.

At the event, several agreements were signed, including for the implementation of Sabah’s good governance practices and regulations and the state Education Savings Assistance (Bistari) through the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN).

Several agreements were signed between companies and the state government. This included the sublease agreement with Petroventure Energy (PESB), involving a petroleum storage and a refining plant, with an investment of RM6 billion.

Also signed was an MoU with Sisma Energy, involving long-term natural gas supply, with investments of RM5 billion. - FMT