SARAWAK TO BECOME MALAYSIA'S RICHEST STATE BY 2030

BINTULU (Malaysia), March 27 (Bernama) -- Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib
Mahmud envisions Sarawak, an East Malaysia state, to become the richest state in
Malaysia by 2030 should there be ample highly skilled locals and sound economic
administration.

Speaking at a dinner to celebrate his 28th anniversary as Sarawak Chief
Minister, he said the struggle to achieve this vision would start from
now as the state is going through a second wave of development.

"This (vision) is the biggest undertaking that would even outlive me whereby
in 2030, Sarawak will be the richest state in Malaysia and will become a land of
opportunities for the people," he added.

Taib said he had already charted plans to set up more higher learning
institutions to train Sarawakians in a highly-skilled workforce that could
diversify the future economic activities in the state.

With the depletion of natural resources, he said the future generation of
Sarawakians would need to be trained to be able to explore and efficiently
exploit potential new resources that could be used to maintain the state's
pace of development.

Anyone who would be leading Sarawak into that era would have to
start from now, to form a good teamwork with other leaders, so as to maintain a
harmonious environment that would facilitate the task of planning for the next
development, he said.

He added that the leader should also ensure that the people in the state
would not be confused by their development plans as this could put them in a
difficult position to progress.

The success of transforming Sarawak into a stage of development that could
be enjoyed now, was the result of good understanding and cooperation from all
levels of people in the state, he said.

"I don't deserve to get all the credit as I'm only the thinker. The success
reflects the success of the people at large and that is the success we are
celebrating today," he said.

-- BERNAMA