KUCHING: The Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) proposed for the state government to set up a Bumiputera Unit under the State Economic Planning Unit and a Bumiputera Empowerment Council directly under the Chief Minister’s Office.
DCCI president Datuk Leonard Martin Uning said this was to achieve the objective of tracking bumiputera participation in all sectors of Sarawak’s economy.
“(This participation) should be tracked in terms of main composition of the bumiputera community — Iban, Malay, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu, and Melanau,” he said at a press conference at the DCCI office here today.
He said a special unit dedicated to bumiputera matters would be able to plan, monitor, and evaluate achievements and outcomes of projects to measure the level of success.
He also called on the state government to take steps towards establishing the Bumiputera Commercial and Industrial Community (BCIC) for all important sectors of the state’s economy.
“We propose that Dayak companies registered with DCCI be issued with a certificate by DCCI as bumiputera (Dayak) companies. We would like the government to recognise the certificate as an official document to be attached to all applications including tenders in order to prevent the Bumiputera from being abused,” he said.
In addition, Leonard recommended that the open tender system (OTS) for the government procurement system be reviewed and restructured.
“We believe that the OTS system puts bumiputera companies at a disadvantage and may drag them into unrealistic tender price submission in their desperation to compete. In the end, they may not be able to complete the projects or will end up having serious financial problems,” he said.
Another proposal by DCCI was for a buffer mechanism or handicap system to be put in place in order to nurture the bumiputera business community to attain the status of BCIC in important sectors of the state’s economy.
He said this would have to start with systematic implementation of bumiputera empowerment policies and programmes.
“The bumiputera chambers must therefore be viewed by the government not as mere non-governmental organisations (NGOs) but to play the role of critical leaders and dominant forces to drive Bumiputera businesses to a level of BCIC in all sectors of the economy,” he said.
As an example, in the construction sector, he said the first step would be to appoint DCCI as managing trustee for mega government infrastructure projects allocated to Dayak contractors, with such projects to be awarded directly to the chamber on a direct negotiation basis.
“DCCI will enforce a strict mechanism for the appointment of Dayak contractors in accordance with strict criteria. DCCI is preparing itself for this role by embarking on the profiling exercise of all Dayak companies,” said Leonard.
