MIRI: Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau has expressed his commitment to bring comprehensive development to the area comprising 88 settlements while strengthening his constituents’ economies.
“I have laid down short and long term development plans for my area to ensure the sustainability and prosperity of the people here (Telang Usan),” he said when met by New Sarawak Tribune at Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Telang Usan’s service centre in Luak recently.
Dennis did not let the various challenges faced to sidetrack his commitment to further develop Telang Usan.
“The challenges are multifaceted including infrastructure, economic, political and social,” he said.
He revealed that besides developing more infrastructure facilities such as treated water supply, 24-hour electricity and improving high-speed internet access to rural villages, efforts on rural tourism activities to generate income (of villagers) were also being intensified.
“I’m also planning to set up an anchor farm model within Telang Usan, where we can gather all the farmers (in the constituency), train them on how to market their produce and other services to increase their crops and farm incomes.”
Dennis said that they were currently scouring for a suitable area for the proposed project.
“We hope through this project, we can pull in our young people back to their villages instead of migrating to urban areas….we don’t want Telang Usan to be a ‘ghost town’,” he said.
Hence, Dennis called on Telang Usan constituents to continue to fully support the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government to ensure continuous development for the people.
“As an elected representative for Telang Usan, I am trying my best to bring development to the area, …the task is not easy, but I’ ll do my very best for the people of Telang Usan,” Dennis said.
He added that implementing development projects in Telang Usan was tough due to the distances between the scattered villages, transportation problems and high cost of building materials. “99.9 percent of the roads going into settlements within Telang Usan constituency are logging roads, and we hope that all 88 settlements in this constituency would get to enjoy better accessibility (by road) in the next two years with allocation amounting to RM750 million from the Highland Development Agency (HDA),” he said.
