Kota Kinabalu: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin urged the Federal Government to withdraw its decision to postpone the RM600 million Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex in Kalabakan due to a lack of funding.
The decision, according to Bung, who is also State Works Minister, was not fair to the people of Sabah, who required an economic stimulus to develop the East Coast.
He said the Minister of Works, Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof’s decision to postpone the project was unexpected, and that the project had already begun and was running smoothly.
“This reasoning is unacceptable because the CIQ will contribute to Sabah’s economic expansion as a result of the Indonesian capital’s shift to Kalimantan.
“Despite the fact that we give a significant amount of revenue to the country, Sabah has been falling behind in the economic sector for far too long in comparison to the Peninsula.
“However, when a good project is launched, the government postpones it due to a lack of funding, without taking into account the interests and requirements of the people of Sabah,” Bung said.
Bung said Sabah should not be affected by the Federal Government’s budget limits because other development projects in the Peninsula, such as the RM20 billion Mass Rapid Transit 2 (MRT2) Project in Kuala Lumpur is nearing completion.
He emphasised that the Kalabakan CIQ Project, on the other hand, is far less expensive and equally vital to the people of Sabah as the completion of Peninsula’s MRT2.
With the opening of East Kalimantan as Indonesia’s new capital, a large-scale exodus of Indonesians from the Java archipelago is projected, causing an economic depression on the East Coast of Sabah.
“However, the condition is that we must provide facilities, especially since the Trans-Borneo Highway is still waiting to connect Sabah and Kalimantan,” he said.
“If the government continues to postpone, Sabah will continue to lag behind even though the opportunity is right in front of our eyes because important infrastructure such as the CIQ Complex has not been built.”
The CIQ complex would serve as a link between Sabah and Indonesia via North Kalimantan.
The Serudong project is part of the Kalabakan-Serudong Road project, which is one of the Trans-Borneo Highway packages.
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