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Manufacturing The strategy for the manufacturing sector is to attract world-class companies to anchor and accelerate the growth of downstream manufacturing activities, leveraging on Sabah’s rich natural resources such as palm oil, oil and gas, minerals and timber as feedstock. The initial focus will be on enhancing enablers such as infrastructure and human capital. A critical mass of SMEs which will serve not only to support the larger multinationals companies (MNCs) but also to provide an avenue of future growth for Sabah. Through the SME Manufacturing Leaders Programme, companies at different stages of development (from early stage through to expansion stage) will have access to BusinessLink centres established to deliver business advisory services to local SMEs.
Advisory services would cover areas such as operational improvements, match-making with potential buyers, marketing and design for exports and so forth. Within the manufacturing sector, detailed sub-sectoral studies will be carried out in the following identified high impact areas: • Oil and gas: to ascertain the viability of generating high-value employment and spin-off activities from the establishment of an integrated gas-based petrochemical complex in Sabah • Biomass recovery: market feasibility study on trading by-products from agriculture plantations such as palm oil, rubber, and cocoa to provide access to users of these byproducts and at the same time ensure pricing transparency to plantation owners • Minerals: a detailed study leading to the formulation of a policy which will ensure that minerals are extracted without damaging the flora and fauna and the surrounding environment It is envisaged that with the successful implementation of these initiatives, Sabah will emerge as one of the leading locations of choice for resource-based manufacturing activities in Asia.
The targets for the manufacturing sector by 2025 are to: • Increase capital investments from RM208 million (2006) to RM2.96 billion by 2025 • Enhance employment in the manufacturing sector from 135,000 to 228,704 by 2025 • Increase proportion of manufacturing workforce with tertiary education from under 10% (2005) to 45% by 2025
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