THE 2024 State Budget continues to be rural-biased with an allocation of RM5.695 billion or 63 per cent out of the total RM9.038 billion proposed for development expenditure.
With nine regional development agencies established, Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the agencies play a pivotal role in empowering local communities through the state’s bottom-up approach to initiative the development projects.
“To expand the economic opportunities for the rural areas, the 2024 State Budget will continue to be rural-biased,” he said when tabling the Supply Bill on the first day of the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting today.
At the same time, Abang Johari assured that the state government will continue to pursue the development of native land to sustain the income of native customary rights (NCR) landowners.
“This budget provides a sum of RM35 million for Sarawak Land Consolidation Authority (SALCRA) in the form of a federal loan for replanting oil palm in existing estates involving 10,500 hectares and for new planting of 6,400 hectares.
“The government will also continue to assist oil palm smallholders in complying with the European Union (EU)’s European Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR) policy by implementing various strategies to promote sustainable agro-commodity production such as Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification, which covers all stages of the production chain in the sector,” he said.
Abang Johari, who is also the Minister of Finance and New Economy, said that to date, 50,823 hectares involving 28,849 lots of NCR land have been involved in SALCRA’s oil palm development programme.
“The total number of participants’ land issued with Section 18 stands at 18,392 lots or 63.8 per cent, involving 33,890 hectares, while another 4,577 lots have been surveyed and are pending issuance of land titles.
“To accelerate the issuance of Section 18 land title, this budget has set aside a sum of RM2 million for the programme,” he added.
