Bintulu Port
KUCHING: Sarawak is prepared to consider taking over Bintulu Port which is currently a federal government entity.
Infrastructure and Ports Development Assistant Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi said it would be part of the state government’s efforts to strengthen the management of the ports, in line with the current development.
“We are studying ways to improve ports management and this include Sarawak’s rights on Bintulu Port,” he said in reply to a question from Aidel Lariwoo (GPS-Sadong Jaya) in the State Legislative Assemby here yesterday.
Aidel wanted to know the state government’s plans to fully take over Bintulu Port from the federal government and the status of the land of the port site.
Julaihi said the land which belonged to the state government, had been leased out to Bintulu Port for 99 years, beginning March 5, 1983, for RM1.5 million a year.
“When the lease expires, the land will still belong to the state government,” he added.
Later at a press conference, asked by reporters if the government would purchase all the shares in Bintulu Port Holdings, a publicly listed company which controls Bintulu Port, he explained that the decision would be subject to negotiations.
“As of now, we have stakes worth 26.67 percent through the Sarawak Financial Secretary and 13.04 percent from our subsidiaries.
“This amounts to a total of 39.72 percent of shares. Hopefully we can acquire the shares after the study is done.”
He added that Sarawak has representatives on the board comprising the Regional Corridor Development Authority (Recoda) chief executive officer and the Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) general manager.
Meanwhile, Aidel, who was also present at the press conference, stressed that it was important for Sarawak to acquire Bintulu Port.
“If we can acquire that, we can generate billions of revenues,” he said
Aidel later labelled Bintulu Port as a cash cow for the state as Bintulu has the second largest gas reserves in the world.
“If we look at history, Bintulu Port was introduced after PDA1974 under the federal government. Hopefully we can streamline and integrate all of our ports in Sarawak,” he explained.
