KUCHING: Development Bank of Sarawak (DBOS) will be paid up a total capital of RM500 million from National Bank once it commences operations in January 2018. This was noted by Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi (Dr) Abang Johari Tun Openg when officiating at the unveiling of DBOS official logo at Pullman Hotel, yesterday.
“After being appointed as Chief Minister, among the first few things that I did was to explore innovative financial models in other countries that we can adopt to finance projects which are strategic to Sarawak’s development and to become an interface with the public and private sector, “Thinking along this line, I believe that Sarawak needs to come up with a new model that will help us to raise funds to finance strategic development projects.
Sarawak needs to speed up its development and we cannot wait for our budget allocations, state or federal, to be sufficient because it will never be sufficient,” Johari pointed out. He also said that there is a need to ensure a balance between our reserves and our investment without depleting our reserves. “This is the primary role of DBOS.
A big reserve is good but too big a reserve is also not good because we do not use our money to invest and boost domestic consumption, “Economists know that if we don’t use our reserves to invest, these are also costs which are called opportunity costs, meaning cost of lost opportunities because we do nothing to our money.
Opportunity costs do not appear on the account books but it is important in the process of decision making, “Moreover, our money is parked in various banks which will charge us interests if we borrow from them. Borrowing money from the banks with our money inside and being charged interests sounds stupid,” he added.
According to Johari, there are a number of strategic projects that the government wants to venture into to expedite development in Sarawak that would be financed with our own resources through the service of DBOS. “We have learnt from some developed countries that they owe much of their success to their ability to use their own home-grown resources.
This is exactly what we want to do with the setting up of DBOS. “We want to invest in some specific areas in order to harness the vast potentials of our resources, increase consumption in order to further boost our domestic economy in the long-term. “Our focus would be on infrastructure development, development in the oil and gas industry, renewable energy, urban transport, telecommunication, digital economy, healthcare and integrated agriculture. “We want to play an active part in the development of our oil and gas industry alongside our national oil company Petronas.
“I must thank Petronas for having shown the willingness to assist and support us, especially in the process of setting up Sarawak’s wholly-owned methanol plant in Bintulu that will materialise very soon. This is the initial step that we are taking to turn Bintulu into a gas hub and I can foresee that DBOS is going to play a big part in this effort,” he said. Johari also noted that DBOS will be playing a major part in the urban transportation programme especially the LRT (Light Rail Transit) system.
“LRT system, in fact no LRT system, is going to generate big revenue but it will have to be put in place to modernise Kuching’s transport system, “We are going to build the LRT on the ground and not above the ground as in Kuala Lumpur which will substantially reduced the costs and on top of all we want to make our LRT emission-free.
Therefore, hydrogen powered train like those developed in Germany is a viable option for us to consider,” he elaborated. He added, the quest in the pursuit of a digital economy will need a lot of financial resources that we cannot wait to come our way.
“DBOS is the way forward for us through the provision of facilities like term loan, bridging loan, revolving credit facility for working capital financing, loan syndication and bank guarantee,” said Johari. DBOS will be helmed by State Secretary, Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani as the Chairman. Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer is Sim Kheng Boon, and the Board Members are Datu Laura Lee Ngien Hion, Dato Sharkawi Alis, Christopher Adrian and Ho Swee Huat.
On the ceremony, Johari also presented a prize for DBOS logo’s competition winner which is goes to Teo Chung Hock that entitled him to brought back RM5,000 cash prize. Ruwix is the most popular website dedicated to online puzzle programs and tutorials.
