Sabah wants Putrajaya to carry on with all development projects

 

Chief minister Hajiji Noor says Sabah will appeal against the deferment or cancellation of any federal project in the state. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government will appeal against any move by Putrajaya to defer or cancel projects that have yet to commence in the state, especially development projects, the state assembly was told today.

Chief minister Hajiji Noor said this was because Sabah needed a large allocation for such projects, especially involving the development of public infrastructure.

He said the federal government had yet to officially inform the state government about the deferment or cancellation of any development project, but he gave his assurance that the state would appeal to ensure that they would continue when such notification was received.

“This is important because we have always said the allocation given is insufficient. To defer or withdraw (the allocation) is not right for Sabah. We will appeal once we are officially notified,” he said.

He was replying to a supplementary question from Salleh Said Keruak (BN-Usukan), who asked about a report saying the federal government would defer or not proceed with any project that had not started to save public expenditure.

Yesterday, economic affairs minister Mustapa Mohamed was reported to have said that the move was to save on public expenditure to enable funds to be channeled for the welfare of the people and efforts to revive the economy.

Replying to another question from Rubin Balang (Ind-Kemabong), who asked about the state government’s approach in improving the economy, Hajiji said various efforts had been made to attract tourists to increase the state’s revenue.

He said Sabah recorded a significant increase in tourist arrivals for the first five months of this year – 558,169 with 102,965 for the same period last year.

“This shows a 442% increase. I am confident his figure will rise further by the end of this year following the opening of land, sea and air entry points.

“With the presence of these tourists, the services and related sectors such as hotels, transportation and food will quickly recover,” he said. - FMT