Misleading to equate median house price and affordable housing
The median price of house is affected by a few factors in Sarawak, including the inclination to have landed properties with a bigger land size, spacious green area and low density development.
Deputy Premier Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian said furthermore, the Khazanah Research Institute’s median house price are based on house developed by private developer and did not include affordable housing developed by Federal or state governments.
Hence, it was misleading to equate median house price with affordability and affordable housing.
Higher commodity prices in Sarawak
Commodity prices in Sarawak are generally higher when compared with Peninsular Malaysia due to logistics and transportation.
“In West Malaysia, they have the economy of scale and size of the housing projects. Thus, housing prices in Sarawak are generally and slightly higher than the national median house price which is RM326,500 versus RM295,000 based on 2020 statistics,” he said Dr Sim.
Under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP), the Sarawak Housing Development Corporation (HDC), has been allocated RM398 million to implement affordable housing projects.
A total of 1,568 units of affordable housing and Rumah SPEKTRA Permata (RSP) are in various stages of implementation in Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong, Sarikei, Sibu, Kapit, Mukah, Miri and Limbang.
Sarawak remains optimistic of its tourism industry
Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said Sarawak is optimistic to receive 1.2 million visitors and generate RM3.2 billion tourism receipts this year.
He said Sarawak will put more focus to develop eco-tourism and community-based tourism. In the Post COVID-19 Development Strategy 2030 (PCDS 2030) one of the outcomes in the Tourism Sector is to increase community-based tourism by 20 per cent with emphasis to increase the household income of the participating local communities.
Developing e-sports platform
Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development ministry has been actively collaborating with Sarawak E-sports Association (SESA) to create an e-sports development platform including organising competition and development programmes in producing future champions in the field.
Karim said there were 369 Sports Development Centres throughout Sarawak comprising 299 Pusat Permulaan (PEP) with 3,997 athletes and 299 coaches, and 70 Pusat Cemerlang (PEC) with 1,521 athletes and 70 coaches.
Meanwhile, the Senior Elite Development Programme is also in the pipeline to produce another five Olympiads to make up eight Olympiads from Sarawak by 2030.
“At the moment, we have Datuk Pandelela Rinong in Diving, Bonnie Bunyau Gustin and Jong Yee Khie in Para Powerlifting.”
Revitalising export-oriented cash crops
The state government aims to revitalise and strengthen the development of coconut, durian, pineapple and banana which have potential for export; as well as to become the main sources of new wealth in Sarawak and to increase farmers’ income.
Modernisation of Agriculture and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom said the government has allocated RM30 million to develop another three pig farming areas (PFAs) in Selangau in Sibu division, Samarakan in Bintulu division, as well as an extension of the existing PFA in Simunjan.
Sarawak’s rice production
The current rice production in Sarawak can only meet 38 per cent of the state’s rice requirement.
The total area of paddy cultivation in Sarawak has decreased quite significantly from around 130,000 hectares in 2012 to about 83,000 hectares in 2021. Hence, the amount of rice produced has also reduced from 142,000 metric tonnes in 2012 to about 89,400 metric tonnes in 2021.
