Local Support Industries to Benefit from Chemical Plant

BINTULU: The establishment of a petrochemical hub in Bintulu will benefit local support industries, especially small and medium enterprises, Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said,

Thus, the setting up of a chemical plant in Tg Kidurong Industrial Area here by Huchems Fine Chemical Corporation will be a milestone for Sarawak, added the Second Resource Planning an Environment Minister.

“We will have another major petrochemical industry leveraging on the availability of natural gas besides the MLNG Complex and ABF plant that we already have in Bintulu,” he said during the groundbreaking ceremony of Huchems manufacturing plant in Tg Kidurong yesterday.

Moreover, he said, Bintulu has the important and necessary facilities to handle petrochemical industry even up to world class standard.

“Its deep sea port, abundant raw materials and business friendly environment all make it a most suitable location for foreign corporations to set up operations here.

“As such our government is all out to see that petrochemical companies are encouraged to set up their plants here,” said Awang Tengah.

He hoped Huchems would support the state government in attracting more Korean investors to invest in Sarawak, especially in the downstream petrochemical industries utilizing the fine chemical products produced by Huchems.

“We have clearly stated our stand when we signed our Principle Agreement with Huchems on December 1, 2014,” he said.

According to Awang Tengah, the manufacturing sector is one of the major contributors to the state’s economy.

He said in 2014, the sector contributed 26.6 per cent to the state’s economy and 10 per cent to the total employment.

The Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), he said, provided the impetus needed to accelerate the growth of the manufacturing sector.

“To-date a total of 20 projects worth RM30.59 billion have been approved in SCORE.

“With this encouraging response from investors, the state government will continue to emphasise SCORE under the 11^th Malaysia Plan because SCORE will provide the required trajectory for Sarawak to achieve greater industrialization in years to come,” he added.

He described industrialization as the way forward for Sarawak.

“In fact we have no other better options apart from encouraging the setting up of more export oriented industries to fit into the global supply chain in view of Sarawak’s small domestic marker.”

SCORE, according to him, had successfully attracted many trigger projects such as aluminium smelting, polycrystalline silicon, metallic silicon and ferroalloy.

“The establishment of these trigger projects which are mainly primary processing industries augurs well with our SCORE development plan as we are also promoting the development of clusters.

“Therefore our next step is to encourage the setting up of more high value added downstream industries in order to complete the value chain,” he said.

He assured the state government will continue its efforts to promote Sarawak as an attractive investment destination in the region, especially among its target markets which include Korea.