As at the end of September, 72 or 12.5 percent of the 578 federal government-funded projects approved for implementation in Sarawak under the Second Rolling Plan (RP2) of the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (11MP) had been completed.

Sarawak’s finance minister Wong Soon Koh said the remaining 506 projects or 87.5 percent were still in the various stages of implementation.

He said the cumulative expenditure for federal-funded projects was RM2.36 billion or 50.9 percent of the allocation of RM4.64 billion approved under the second rolling plan.

“Currently, 1,718 state and federal-funded projects are being implemented in Sarawak by various ministries, departments and agencies,” he said when winding up the debate for the ministry at the state assembly sitting, Kuching, today.

On the state-funded projects of the 11MP, he said 1,140 projects and programmes with a ceiling of RM20 billion had been approved for implementation, with 702 being physical projects and 438 in the form of programmes and investments.

“The cumulative expenditure from 2016 up to Sept 30 was RM5.36 billion or 26.8 percent against the RM20 billion ceiling of the 11MP,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wong who is also state international trade and e-dagang minister, said Sarawak’s international trade value last year had dropped to RM117 billion from RM123 billion in 2015, however, the performance for January to September this year was showing an upward trend.

He said Sarawak’s exports as at September had breached the RM71 billion mark compared to only RM55 billion registered for the same period last year, showing a sharp increase of almost 30 percent, while Sarawak’s imports had been consistent at a manageable level of RM30 billion, the same amount registered within the same period last year.

He said the major exports were still traditional goods, namely liquefied natural gas (LNG), palm oil, crude petroleum, aluminium and petroleum condensate, while among the main imported goods were machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, manufactured goods, food and miscellaneous manufactured items.

“It is also encouraging to note that overall, the trade balance is still in Sarawak’s favour with a stark increase of 65 percent registered from January to September 2017 compared to the corresponding period last year,” he said.

“Our present balance of trade as at September 2017 had reached almost RM41 billion, compared to only RM25 billion for the same period in the previous year.

“These convincing figures show to us Sarawak’s competitiveness, good reputation and commitment in delivering quality products and services to our trading partners,” he added.

- Bernama