KOTA KINABALU: \u00a0The national Budget\u00a02023 reflects the federal Unity Government’s commitment to remedy the country’s financial standing and\u00a0takes\u00a0care of the people\u2019s needs across the board, said Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
\nIn welcoming the budget, Hajiji said in a statement today that\u00a0the RM6.5 billion allocation for Sabah was\u00a0about 3.1 per cent more than the amount allocated in Budget\u00a02023 tabled by the previous government.
\n\u201cIn addition, another RM2.5 billion is allocated for Sabah and Sarawak to implement public amenity projects such as roads, street lights, electricity and water supply.
\n“We also welcome the federal government’s commitment to expedite the more than 1,000 kilometres\u00a0Pan Borneo Sabah-Sabah Sarawak Road Link project by allocating RM20 billion,” he said after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had tabled a RM388.1 billion budget for 2023 on Friday.
\nThe previous government under Prime Minister\u00a0Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had tabled Budget 2023 totalling RM372.3 billion in October last year but Parliament was dissolved for the 15th general election before it could be debated and passed.
\nHajiji also welcomed the prime minister’s commitment on a\u00a0RM1billion allocation for the construction of a\u00a0Customs, Immigration, Quarantine and Security (CIQS) facility at the Sabah-Sarawak border town in Kalabakan in anticipation of the shifting of the Indonesian capital to Kalimantan.
\n“Nonetheless, Sabah will also continue to press for the construction of a similar facility at Bantul in Pensiangan,” he said, expressing gladness on\u00a0the federal government’s emphasis on enhancement of security with an additional 42 security posts at the border, including in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone)\u00a0area.
\nHe\u00a0also welcomed Anwar’s assertion on the federal government’s commitment to delegate the approval of federal projects below RM50 million to technical departments in Sabah and Sarawak.
\nEntrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister\u00a0Datuk Ewon Benedick, in a separate statement, said as a federal minister from Sabah, he truly appreciated Anwar\u2019s commitment to increase special grants and other allocations for the state.
\n\u201cI also value the prime minister\u2019s commitment to increase mobile clinics, mobile banks and mobile courts in Sabah. Previously, I had asked\u00a0the Cabinet to provide a special allocation for funding the Mobile Court programme\u00a0in Sabah,\u201d he said.
\nThe\u00a0Penampang MP hoped the Budget 2023 allocations given to his Cabinet colleagues would help to boost development in the Land Below the Wind.
\nMeanwhile, several Sabahans who were interviewed hoped a big portion of the allocations would be used to maintain, upgrade and build roads, clinics and schools in the state.
\nMazlina\u00a0Hajar Kassem, 46, a\u00a0primary school teacher in Tuaran, hoped the allocations would solve the longstanding problem of dilapidated schools and clinics in Sabah.
\n\u201cThe rural areas in Sabah are most affected by this issue and the RM1.2 billion for repairing 380 dilapidated schools and 400 rundown clinics should be extended quickly so that our children and grandchildren would not have to inherit this problem,\u201d she said.
\nGrabfood delivery rider\u00a0Muhammad Hishamsul Bujang, 28, said the\u00a0RM2.7 billion for upgrading federal roads and\u00a0RM1.5 billion for upgrading and building rural links would have a big impact on road users like him.
\n\u201cMotorcyclists like us are the most exposed to risk of accidents due to damaged roads. We hope this allocation can resolve this problem, which has been well publicised on social media,\u201d said the Likas resident.
\n— BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KOTA KINABALU: \u00a0The national Budget\u00a02023 reflects the federal Unity Government’s commitment to remedy the country’s financial standing and\u00a0takes\u00a0care of the people\u2019s needs across the board, said Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor. In welcoming the budget, Hajiji said in a statement today that\u00a0the RM6.5 billion allocation for Sabah was\u00a0about 3.1 per cent more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":18750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18751,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18749\/revisions\/18751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}