Sarawak wants more funds, not banking on oil royalty

By SHARON LING, The Star, 28 Oct. 2008

KUCHING: Sarawak will seek more funds from the Federal Government, rather than ask for an increase in oil royalty payments, to develop the state.

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said Sarawak was still lagging behind other states in Malaysia, especially in terms of its infrastructure, and needed more funds to catch up.

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, he said.

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

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

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

He said high fuel prices had resulted in higher costs 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.

He added that the state had an organic farming certification programme in place and a number of farms had 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 Development (UNCTAD), the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements and the International Task Force on Harmonisation and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture.

ACO OPERATORS’ SUCCESS

Five small to medium organic operators, all certified by the Australian Certified Organic (ACO), have been recognised for their innovation and product quality on a large-scale national platform as finalists, and three have been winners in 2008 Food Challenge Awards.

Other contestants in the awards are giant food companies such as Nestle, Kraft and Heinz, but ACO certified operators dominated the finalists’ list, including the hotly contested category, ‘Health and Wellness’ section, by filling half of the ten places in the final.