KUCHING: At total of 89 hectares of land at Sabal, Simunjan have been identified to be used by Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) to do a pilot project for bamboo plantation.
To achieve its plan, STIDC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Subur Tiasa Holdings Berhad on the development of bamboo plantation and bamboo integrated industry during the Seminar on Wood Utilisation in Construction Structure 2018 at Riverside Majestic Hotel, in Kuching yesterday.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Haji Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, said to ensure sustainability of the timber industry in the State, STIDC is embarking on programmes focusing on other non-timber based materials such as bamboo for the timber industry.
Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources, as well as Minister of Industrial and Entrepreneur Development said that bamboo is one of the resources that could generate the economy development.
“There is one town Anji in China where they started to develop the bamboo industry and had now become a rural setting to a high income town,” he said.
The Chairman of STIDC said that it was because bamboo materials are not only used for construction, but also for furniture, flooring, charcoal, blackest, pillows, stockings, and fabrics.
“STIDC will be undertaking to conduct training on bamboo’s upstream and processing activities in preparation for the establishment of bamboo production project in the timber industry,” Awang Tengah stressed.
He added that STIDC will also conduct programmes to promote bamboo as the building materials for structural use in the local construction industry.
“To strengthen this endeavour, the State Government in its effort to enhance existing forestry policy, will allow bamboo plantation in the existing (Licence of Planted Forest) LPF for those areas which are not able to be planted with trees. This is to allow the establishment of an integrated bamboo industry in the State so that more reliable and sustainable supply of bamboo can be secured for the local industry,” he pointed out.
“STIDC future direction is to focus on and encourage more Research and Development (R&D) initiatives especially in promoting planted timber as building materials such as laminated veneer timber (LVL) and Glulam in building structures and in furniture products.
To achieve this, Awang Tengah said that STIDC is working closely with the industry players, other agencies and higher learning institutions locally and internationally.
“This will further augment the State’s desire to achieve a higher export earning of RM10 bullion by 2030.”
Meanwhile, Awang Tengah also urged the timber industry players to be creative, innovative and committed in order to create more value added timber products such as in the furniture industry.
“Our furniture industry is still slow, we must think of ways on how to develop these products because the exportation of furniture is not much.”
