Kota Kinabalu: BIMP-EAGA Special Envoy for Sabah Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia said leaders of the regional grouping must go back to basics and focus on socioeconomic development of less-developed, marginalised and geographically remote areas in the four countries.
The spirit, main objectives and original priorities behind the idea of the formation of BIMP-EAGA in 1994 had been derailed and need to be corrected for the good of all, he told Daily Express.
“Let us go back to basics! The existing power structure of BIMP-EAGA must be dismantled and redrawn…this will end power dominance of the respective central governments of the member countries as well as the existence of ‘business cartels’ within the structure of the ‘Fifth Nation’, the BIMP-EAGA Business Council (BEBC).
The current practice hinders Malaysia’s efforts to eradicate the perennial problem of illegal immigrants and other unhealthy activities, he stressed.