A total of 18 Japanese companies have invested over RM15 billion in Sarawak, especially in the state’s Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), over the last five years. Industrial Development Minister Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan today said Sarawak is no longer a stranger to Japanese investors as they have been among the top investors in Sarawak.
“In 2013, exports to Japan accounted for RM43.6 billion or 40 per cent of our total. Imports from that country totalled RM1.8 billion or 4.6 per cent of the total,” he added. He made these remarks when presenting the keynote address for the 33rd Malaysia-Japan Economic Association (MAJECA) – Japan-Malaysia Economic Association (JAMECA) Joint Conference here today.
With the potential shown by SCORE in attracting large investments, Awang Tengah said it had became a dynamo to accelerate Sarawak’s economic growth and ultimately improve the people’s quality of life. At a press conference later, he said Sarawak’s huge power generating potential had attracted foreign energy intensive industries to start their operations in the state.
Awang Tengah has a brass neck to suggest that SCORE will “improve the quality of life” of Sarawakians.
So far numerous native communities have been cheated by this project for the benefit of a few, like him, a man who openly does business off the back of his political connections.
Malaysia’s official human rights organisation SUHAKAM, the NGO SUARAM and The Bar Council of Malaysia have all publicly stated that the conditions at the Murum dam resettlement site are shocking betrayals of the Penan communities forced out of their lands to make way for SCORE’s latest hydro-electric project, the Murum Dam.
It is just the latest example of how the programme is destroying lives and the environment. Japanese companies should be warned that Governor Taib Mahmud is under investigation for corruption regarding many of the deals they have completed.