THE Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) is currently preparing the Engineered Wood Product Blueprint to provide guidelines and directions for the development of the engineered wood industry.
Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Tengah Ali Hasan said this is in line with the aspirations to increase high value-added timber products.
“The development of this industry is expected to be a game changer to achieve high value-added products as well as optimise the use of raw material resources from forest plantations,” he said.
Awang Tengah, who is also the Second Minister of Natural Resource and Urban Development, said this when delivering his winding-up speech in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) today.
He said STIDC is also actively implementing research and product development initiatives or research and development (R&D) in smart collaboration with research and higher education institutions as well as the timber industry.
On a related note, he said the export value of timber products until the third quarter of this year showed a decrease of 23 per cent to RM2.3 billion compared to RM3.0 billion in the same period in 2022.
“This decrease is the result of a reduction in the volume of exports of the main product, which is plywood.
“However, Japan is still the main importer of timber products, especially plywood, contributing as much as RM1.2 billion or 52 per cent of Sarawak’s total export value.
“The other main markets are India at RM381 million, Middle East countries at RM189 million, Taiwan at RM121 million and China at RM104 million,” he said.
He urged the timber industry players to be more committed to carrying out the transformation of activities and operations as well as adapt the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) technology towards the production of high value-added wood products using more raw materials from forest and bamboo plantations.
“For this purpose, the government will continue to empower downstream industries such as the biomass, furniture, bamboo-based, and engineered wood industries,” he said, adding that as of the third quarter of this year, Sarawak hd exported wood pellet products to Japan, France and Korea worth RM36 million.
“Bamboo-based products have a wide market potential. The global export value of bamboo-based products in 2022 is USD66.2 billion and is expected to grow at a rate of four percent per year. While for Sarawak, the market value of bamboo products is at RM1.2 million,” he said.
Apart from being a source of raw materials for downstream industries, he said bamboo cultivation activities also have high potential to be developed for the purpose of carbon trading.
“We are targeting 10,000 hectares of area for bamboo cultivation by 2030 as a source of raw materials for downstream industries.
“To date, an area of 3,661 hectares has been planted with various bamboo species by the industry and the community,” said Awang Tengah.
