KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Haji Noor wants the Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park (SOGIP) to be developed into its full potential as a premier petrochemical gas and petroleum downstream activity hub in this region.
He stressed that infrastructure and land readiness was one of the important issues that must be addressed by the Sabah Oil and Gas Development Corporation (SOGDC), as the promoter of SOGIP, to attract investors.
He said on the State government’s part it was providing funds under the Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) Halatuju and through the Federal under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) to address infrastructure issues in SOGIP.
Towards this end, he said SOGDC need to work extra hard to ensure positive growth of Sabah’s oil and gas industry and in particular improve SOGIP’s position in the petrochemical cluster within the South East Asia region aside from creating high quality jobs for the people.
He said this when chairing the SOGDC Board of Director (BOD) meeting at PPNS near here Monday.
Hajiji who is chairman of the SOGDC believes with the new team SOGDC would move to the forefront and becomes more efficient and proactive in managing SOGIP.
The SOGDC new BOD also comprised Deputy Chief Minister cum Industrial Development Minister Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam, Haji Abdul Kadir Haji Damsal as Managing Director cum Chief Executive Officer, three permanent secretaries – Rusdin Riman (Finance), Jasmin Julpin (Works), Thomas Logijin (Industrial Development) – and former Petronas Chemicals Group Sabah Project and Project Management (Project Directorate) Datuk Haji Mohd Shariff Haji Ibrahim.
Also in the Board were Political Secretary to the Chief Minister Dr Roland Chia and former nominated Assemblyman Ronnie Loh Ee Eng.
Generally, Hajiji said the development of Sabah’s oil and gas industry especially upstream sector has experienced rapid growth with the discovery of deepwater oil fields in its waters in the past few years.
“Improved terms in the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) by Petronas has allowed better management of the upstream sector and enabled the country and Sabah in particular to progress in terms of its hydrocarbon resources,” he said.
Hajiji assured that it was the State Government’s aspiration not only to boost revenue from oil and gas from taxes but also achieve inclusivity whereby people will have bigger opportunities and benefit economically be it directly or indirectly from the sector.
Earlier, the Chief Minister presented the letters of appointment to the new board of director members.
