THE Sarawak Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts is advocating for a fair distribution of allocation for tourism development.
Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah revealed that the ministry had allocated RM360.265mil under the state’s 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) and RM133.25mil under the People’s Project allocation for tourism development.
“Additionally, RM18.523mil was received from the federal government through the National Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture (MoTAC),” he said during his ministerial winding-up speech at the DUN sitting on today (May 23).
Later in a press conference, he explained that receiving allocation was akin to receiving salary where it would never be sufficient, while saying the state was hoping to see a fair distribution of wealth for tourism development.
“If Melaka, for a small state, can be given a few hundred million for tourism development, Sarawak has got more facilities that need to be upgraded too, so (we hope the federal government could be fair on this.”
Abdul Karim emphasised the importance of fair compensation and assistance from the federal government to upgrade tourism facilities in Sarawak, considering the state’s substantial contributions to the national tourism sector.
When pressed further on how long Sarawak had been shortchanged, he responded, “Well, it has been like this for many years.”
Despite this, he expressed the need to move forward and focus on proactive measures, including independent initiatives for tourism promotion and overseas marketing efforts.
“When we are going for promotion overseas, we also cannot rely on MoTAC too much.
“Having said that, we are not complaining about that much, because if we keep on complaining it does not bring any good.
“We just move on and with aggressive promotion of Sarawak, we can see the number of tourists coming and acknowledging the efforts that we are doing,” said Abdul Karim.
