THE Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) (Amendment) Bill 2022 will be able to strengthen the corporation’s roles and functions to achieve the goals set under the Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030.
Abdul Yakub Arbi (GPS-Balingian) said the Bill was timely and would be an effective enabler to achieve the target by introducing laws and policies that regulate and facilitate the timber industry.
“These amendments are in line with the aspirations of Sarawak’s PCDS 2030 on economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, social inclusivity, digital innovation, and green economy.
“Under the PCDS 2030, the forestry sector is one of the economic sectors identified by the state to achieve this aspiration.
“The timber industry is set to increase its export earnings to an annual export value of RM8bil by 2030 through production of high value-added products,” he said when debating in support of the Bill during the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on Wednesday (Nov 23).
He pointed out that the Bill would streamline the powers and functions of the three agencies, namely STIDC, Forests Department and Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC).
“There will be a distinctive separation of power where STIDC shall regulate and facilitate the downstream industry, Forests Department will oversee the upstream activities, while SFC will be centred on wildlife and conservation.
“With this Bill, STIDC will be the one-stop agency in relation to downstream industry from issuance of licence for mill operations up till the issuance of export and import permit.
“This would create ease of doing business for the timber industry as they would only need to get the license and permit from just one agency instead of multiple agencies.”
Abdul Yakub explained that the Bill also sought to give power to the STIDC general manager to issue a ‘temporary permit to operate’ as a measure to facilitate the timber industry’s processing activities or for domestic use while, waiting for the issuance of a Timber Industry Licence.
“Which means any use for the purpose of construction, repair or extension of a dwelling house or making furniture and other goods and utensils to be used in the dwelling house, and not for sale, barter, or profit.
“For example, the rural community can apply for this temporary permit to build houses for own use where, the location is in rural areas which is not accessible to any mill or construction material supplier.”
