KUCHING: The state government will continue to enhance the downstream timber industry to include biomass, furniture, bamboo and engineered wood.
Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said biomass products have huge potential in the establishment of a green economy in Sarawak.
“Biomass products like wood pellet, biochar and charcoal briquette have massive demand in the global market due to being environmentally friendly.
“Sarawak has exported wood pellet to Japan, France and Korea at an export value of RM36million,” he said.
Awang Tengah’s speech was read by Deputy Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment Datuk Len Talif Salleh at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) and Malaysian Panel – Products Manufacturers’ Association (MPMA) here on Monday night (Jan 22).
He added that STIDC has prepared an Engineered Wood Product Blueprint proposal which will be tabled in the STIDC board meeting on today (Jan 23) for approval.
He said this document provides guidelines and the way forward for the timber industry in Sarawak insofar as the engineered wood industry is concerned.
On the MoU, Awang Tengah said STIDC will share the best practices in forest management as well as research and development (R&D) works in license for planted forest (LPF0043) which is issued to Sarawak Planted Forest Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of STIDC.
He said SPF has set a good track record as they have been consistently contributing 70 to 80 per cent of the overall LPF logs production in Sarawak.
“Currently, the LPF0043 major production is Acacia Crassicarpa among other species like Acacia Mangium and Eucalyptus Pelita.
“So, I believe that this is a wise choice for MPMA to collaborate with STIDC to learn from Sarawak’s experience in planted forest management and practices,” he added.
For STIDC, he said the MoU creates an opportunity to learn from the vast experience of Semenanjung Malaysia in the timber fraternity, with exports of Malaysian timber and timber products growing by 10.6 per cent to RM25.2 billion, the highest earnings recorded by the timber industry in recent years.
“This MoU creates an avenue for STIDC to collaborate with MPMA in relation to on-job training and placement in the timber industry in Semenanjung Malaysia in tandem with the national aspiration on automation and factory transformation for the timber industry.
“These are indeed programmes of common objectives for Sarawak, Sabah and Semenanjung Malaysia to transform the landscape of the timber industry.
“These would include automation, gearing towards Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0), and implementing green and circular economy, in addition to encourage local talents in the timber industry and reduce dependency on manual foreign labour,” he said.
Signing on behalf of STIDC was its general manager Zainal Abidin Abdullah while MPMA was represented by Datuk Wira Sheikh Othman Rahman, witnessed by Len Talif.
Also present were STIDC board members Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain and Datuk Seri Naroden Majais and STIDC adviser Datuk Hashim Bojet.
