Kota Kinabalu: Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department, Datuk Jimmy Wong, hopes to see the State’s economic activity resuming at “rocket speed” through collaboration between government and private sectors. To get the ball rolling, he has engaged the help of the Sabah-China Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) to coordinate and look into how many established China companies are there in Sabah.
“I have requested that they submit the list urgently to my attention so that I can forward it to the Chief Minister and Cabinet,” he told reporters, here.
On the reason for starting with China companies, he said many China companies have undertaken projects such as flyovers as well as private and government-link company projects in Sabah.
He said once these companies resume business, it will benefit the local players who are very much involved in the business supply chain.
Citing the construction industry, where there is a business chain from the supply of building materials, to steel industry and logistics, etc.
“Since I am part of the government and also under the Chief Minister’s Department, it is under our responsibility to quickly restart the business sectors.
“We have to work together between the private sector and government on how to resume the economic activity as soon as possible,” he said, while expressing a wish to see things moving at rocket speed within a month.
“People have been waiting and are suffering … they want to go back to work and start earning and put food on the table to feed their families and this is where the government has to be very serious because if the government fail to quickly resume the economy, our people will suffer more,” he said.
Also present were SCCC President, Datuk Frankie Liew and Vice President Brett Chua.
“We are grateful to Wong for appointing us to be involved in getting the ball rolling for Sabah’s economy since the Movement Control Order and Covid-19 issue,” they said, adding that they will do their level best to assist.
For a start, SCCC will gather all China companies that is already established in Sabah and hold a dialogue to gather feedback on how many of their workers that they want from China to come to Sabah and how many wanted to be repatriated to China.
“Once we have the numbers, we will furnish all the details to the State Government who in turn will prepare the conditions and requirements needed to get the economic activity moving,” they said.
Joining in the initiative, is BJ ST International Travel Co Ltd (China), a major operator in China involved in chartering flights out of China to Jeju City, South Korea (2016 recorded 1.6 million outbound tourists) and Nha Trang and Da Nang (Vietnam) which recorded 600,000 outbound tourists in 2018).
“We are willing to assist in whatever way we can,” said its International Business Director, Emerson Lo.
Earlier this year, the company in collaboration with the State Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry and Cekal Aman Sdn Bhd (Malaysia) initially planned to capture a share of the Northern China Travel market via long-term chartering targeted at 200,000 tourists in the first year of 2020.
However, all plans came to a halt due to the global Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in the State Government to suspend all scheduled and chartered flights from China to Sabah temporarily since Jan 30.
