Sarawak to ask Govt for more funds

The Star, 29 Oct. 2008

KUCHING: Sarawak will seek more federal funds instead of asking for an increase in oil royalty for development.

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said Sarawak still lagged behind the other states, especially in infrastructure, and needed to catch up.

However, he said that getting the needed funds through an increase in the oil royalty would be a complicated matter as the other oil-producing states of Sabah and Terengganu would also want a similar increase.

“The easier thing would be to get more development funds as we want to be at the same level as the other states,” he told reporters after opening the Organic Asia regional conference at the Sarawak Cultural Village yesterday.

Sarawak receives a 5% oil royalty from the Federal Government.

In his speech, Dr Chan said organic farming was an important way of developing sustainable agriculture in the state.

He said high fuel prices had resulted in higher cost for fertilisers and chemicals, causing hardship to farmers who depended on them.

“Organic farmers, I believe, are much less affected by this. This is an obvious advantage of organic farming, apart from its environmental, health and sustainability advantages,” he said, adding that the state had an organic farming certification programme with a number of farms having registered to be certified.

“Currently at least one farm in Sarawak has been awarded the accreditation,” he said.

The four-day conference was organised by the Sarawak Development Institute with the Modernisation of Agriculture Ministry, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Develop-ment (Unctad), the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements and the International Task Force on Harmonisation and Equivalence in Organic Agricul-ture.

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Source: BFA