3 sectors to spearhead development

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

2007/09/20
3 sectors to spearhead development

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KUALA LUMPUR: The services, manufacturing and agriculture sectors will be the principal sources of growth for the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), covering Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Mersing district in Johor.
Under the ECER's 16-year masterplan, the services sector was to grow from RM11.7 billion in 2005 to RM34.3 billion by 2020, Petronas president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Mohd Hassan Marican said.

The manufacturing sector was forecast to grow from RM5.9 billion in 2005 to RM19.1 billion in the next 13 years, while agriculture should expand to RM8.6 billion in 2020 from RM3.7 billion in 2005.

Speaking at a briefing on the ECER here on Tuesday, Hassan said the ECER masterplan envisages that Terengganu would become a tourism gateway, a hub for oil and gas and petrochemical industries, a centre of educational excellence and agriculture focused on goat rearing and as a citrus valley.

Kelantan, meanwhile, was set to become centre of trading, human capital development, educational excellence as well as poultry and herbal cultivation.
Pahang would focus on manufacturing and to become a port city with integrated logistics distribution centre and palm oil industrial cluster as well as cattle and pineapple.

Among the manufacturing sectors that would be promoted were agro and other resource based industries, boat building and repair, automotive, traditional crafts and heavy industries.

Hassan said the main objective of the ECER, scheduled to be launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Oct 30 and 31, was to accelerate the growth of the region in a viable, equitable and sustainable manner.

"This will be undertaken through the development of programmes to raise incomes and reduce poverty by expanding employment prospects through the introduction of high impact, catalytic projects to spur development in the region."

Poverty eradication would be one of the areas of focus, given that the ECER states have among the lowest average household incomes in Malaysia.

Terengganu and Kelantan have the highest incidence of poverty in Malaysia, accounting for 15.4 per cent and 10.6 per cent of poverty in the country respectively, followed by Pahang at 4.9 per cent.

To revitalise the agriculture sector, Hassan said the plan proposed expanding large-scale commercial farming, wider usage of modern technology, development of value-added activities, improving supply chain, and encouraging participation of private sector as anchor companies as well as strengthening marketing and global networking.

In the manufacturing sector, he said the focus would be on strengthening the value chains and high value activities, linkages with other sectors, develop proper strategies on promotion, marketing, packaging and branding, and research and development.