CM: Sabah needs dynamic talent pool to support long-term investments
04 Jul 2023
The Sabah State Government fully supports any effort to drive economic activity and nurture human capital development to sustain and grow long-term investments coming to the state.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor said Sabah’s economy has remained resilient, proven by the fact that from 2020 to 2022, it had secured investments worth RM11.5 billion with 89 projects generating over 4,500 job opportunities for Sabahans.
“Of the RM11.5 billion, RM9.2 billion consisted of foreign direct investments (FDI) and another RM2.3 billion are domestic investments.
“This represented 72.9 per cent of the investments or RM8.4 billion for the manufacturing sector, primary sector comprising agriculture, mining, commodity and plantation (RM1.6 billion) and the service sector (RM1.5 billion).
“Apart from these, I am also delighted to share that the Integrated Green Steel Project, worth RM19.6 billion at the Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park, is expected to create more than 10,000 high-skilled job opportunities for the local community,” he said.
Furthermore, Malaysian Borneo will soon have an excellent infrastructure that will expand economic activities to previously inaccessible locations within both states with the completion of the Pan Borneo Highway project coupled with the construction of Phase Two and Phase Three of the Sabah-Sarawak Link Road (SSLR) Project, he said.
“While such investments place Sabah and Sarawak in good stead, we need a strong, dynamic and agile workforce and talent pool to sustain and grow these investments for the long term.
“Beyond that, strong human capital is essential in ensuring we continue to create and maintain well-developed infrastructure and stay ahead of increasing competition in Southeast Asia,” he said in a speech for the National Human Capital Conference and Exhibition (NHCCE) 2023 – Borneo Region held at the Sabah International Convention Centre here on Tuesday.
He was represented by Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, who is also Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Minister.
Hajiji said that the NHCCE 2023 – Borneo Region was a timely event with these projects in place.
“The conference and exhibition came at a time when we should be placing greater importance on developing more strategic human capital development solutions for Sabah and Sarawak. This will put us in a stronger position to ensure the success of all these current and upcoming development projects,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the NHCCE 2023 – Borneo Region is an excellent platform for government representatives, academia, industry players, and working professionals in Sabah and Sarawak to discuss their human capital challenges and opportunities meaningfully.
Likewise, he said delegates could use this opportunity to learn from the experts how to adopt innovative solutions, garner data-driven insights and utilise key analytics for effective decision-making.
Federal Minister of Human Resources V Sivakumar was also in attendance.
Source: Borneo Post
