CM: Fruitful visit to North, East Kalimantan

KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said his inaugural visit to the provinces of North and East Kalimantan has been fruitful, especially in terms of how to prepare Sabah for the expected economic spins-off and opportunities from the imminent relocation of the Indonesian capital to that region.

“Fruitful not only in terms of strengthening further ties between Sabah and the provinces but I also gained inputs through discussions on various aspects,” he told a press conference on his arrival, Wednesday.

He said they also discussed the need to have border security checkpoint posts along the Kalabakan-North Kalimantan road for curbing smuggling activities.

“Our discussions with the North Kalimantan Government also touched on cooperation in promoting tourism where they also have their own very unique tourism products. Other than that, we also talked about education, on attracting students from there to study at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and Universiti institute Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sabah and vice versa,” he said.

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Asked if the State Government will give more focus in terms of development to border towns like Kalabakan and Sipitang, he said the State Government will look at which areas to be given first priority

The first priority will be on setting up border security checkpoints/posts and road infrastructure linking both Sabah and Kalimantan.

“But it is not only focused at Kalabakan because there is also a connectivity between Sipitang, near the Long Pasia area and Kalimantan.

Asked if there is a plan to build a road connecting Long Pasia and Kalimantan, he said the State Government will notify the Federal Government on the need for that in the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP).

Asked on the development prospects of the two said border towns, Mohd Shafie said he is confident both Kalabakan and Sipitang will also experience rapid development and economic growth, and this especially when the road infrastructure have already been built and upgraded and connected to various places in Kalimantan.

“We will not only be looking at land connectivity, but also air and sea connectivity. We expect there will more of all these land, air and sea connections between Sabah and Kalimantan,” he said.

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“The State Government will look at all these because we see the need to position ourselves and identify our priorities,” said Mohd Shafie, adding that based on his observation, the process of relocating the Indonesian capital to East Kalimantan by the Indonesian government is going on quite fast. We in Sabah are just very happy that there will two capitals of two countries on Borneo island, not far from us...we also need to fully capitalise on these,” he said.

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