KUCHING: Sarawak is gearing up for higher economic growth to achieve a more balanced economic development through rural transformation initiatives, walkabout projects as well as initiatives under the Digital Economy agenda.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said the state’s economic agenda revolved around increasing the connectivity of its towns and people.
“The total road length in Sarawak is approximately 51,312km comprising 30,361km of state roads, 1, 541km of federal roads and 19,411km of logging roads.
“Maintaining such an incredible network of roads is by no means an easy feat,” he said during the Performance-Based Contract (PBC) Workshop at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK), today.
His text of speech was read by Coastal Road Assistant Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi.
The chief minister said therefore, RM9.073 billion out of the government’s budget of RM11.914 billion has been allocated for development expenditure.
In relation to that, RM2.841 billion has been earmarked for operational expenditure which includes road maintenance, he added.
However, he mentioned there are challenges in maintaining roads, which include availability of budget, weather, environment of ground condition such as peat and soft ground and responding to incidents as a result of being geographically spread out.
“Nevertheless, the state government has a duty to its people and that is to connect Sarawakians through road infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Julaihi told the crowd present at the workshop, to get all Sarawakians connected, especially those in the rural and coastal areas; other than completing the Pan Borneo Highway project, the government has initiated to build coastal roads from the southern to northern part of Sarawak, including the second trunk road.
“But there are challenges to build roads along the coast because of its soft soil.
“That is why it is crucial to build bridges too, for one reason, to get all Sarawakians connected,” he pointed out, adding that one of them was the construction of the Batang Lupar Bridge.
He mentioned that at the moment, people are using ferry services, which is not very convenient.
“To be more practical, we should replace all ferry services by constructing more bridges along the coastal belt of Sarawak,” he said.
Therefore he hopes industry players can discuss on what is the best technology on road construction that is suitable and sustainable in the coastal area.
