Sabah the poorest states?That's so yesterday!

Monday, February 27, 2012

Everyone has their own opinion on how to view poverty in Sabah. Some like to generalize their opinion based on what they hear and see. Some makes the assumption that Sabah is poor after going to one or two 'Kampongs' that has several dilapidated house, without realizing that the occupants has a huge EPF & KWSP savings!!

The Prime Minister himself has declared that Sabah is not the poorest states in Malaysia anymore. While some argues that Najib's statement was merely meant to instill the 'feel good' effect among Sabahan, i think Najib had a point there. As the Prime Minister, he should had the access to all the information and statistic related to the states. It is possible that he made the statement based on the information he gathered before he came to Sabah.

So it's official, we are not the poorest states anymore!!

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Poverty tag belies Sabah’s riches
Najib debunks poorest state stigma; Sabah is 6th richest in Malaysia

Prime minister Najib Razak is right. Look around Sabah and you see riches everywhere, even in the remotest village where he went yesterday. Kampung Nala, in Tunku, about 60km (37.5 miles) from Lahad Datu, deep in the eastern side of Sabah, was a mangrove swamp. Today, it is a vibrant rich village with clean piped water, electricity and modern amenities. The houses there fetch about 60,000 ringgit ($19,700) each. Sabah, said Najib, is not the poorest state.

Datuk Seri Najib Razak
In fact, Sabah’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 was 31.6 billion ringgit, making it the sixth richest in Malaysia just behind Penang and ahead of Perak on peninsular Malaysia. Najib said there were only 7,000 poor people, down from 30,000. He did not give a date for the figure but said probably 70% of the people could be said to be poor before Sabah became part of Malaysia in 1963. Sabah then had a population of about 600,000.

In Kota Kinabalu capital city and towns, buildings are sprouting and all kinds of civil works are being carried out at a dizzy pace. Property prices have rocketed and Sabahans complain of rising prices because there is too much money chasing too few goods.

Kota Kinabalu City
Many of the 3.2m people who live in rural Sabah have benefited from the government’s mini estate programme (mesej) where they are given land to develop cash crops such as oil palms and rubber.

In Nala alone, according to Najib, the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) has spent 22m ringgit on its development. Felda also gives 50m ringgit a year to the Sabah government for such socio-economic programmes to bring wealth to villagers.

Najib said 15,455 houses and 458km of roads were being built in rural Sabah this year and 68,000 village homes would get piped water. These projects are the result of close ties between the Sabah and federal governments, he added.
Tan Chong Motor Holdings Berhad
 Another telltale sign that Sabah is rich is that Tan Chong Motor Holdings Berhad, one of Malaysia’s biggest car assemblers, which sells Nissan and Renault cars, is building a factory at the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) to make and assemble luxury passenger and commercial vehicles. It is investing 285m ringgit in its plant on 20 hectares (50 acres) of land that will roll out the first 3,000 4-wheel drive vehicles. Its 1.8-litre luxury car will have an on-the-road price of at least 150,000 ringgit. – Insight Sabah

Read More: http://insightsabah.gov.my/article/read/1704

18 comments:

  1. I believe Sabah has come far after these years, we have made much improvements compared to the past, this is undeniable. Although I do agree there are still room for improvement, our government should continue to do their best for the development of the state.

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    1. Even though there are some criticism on Sabah and its govt, they can't deny that Sabah has progressed a lot from yesteryears.

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    2. Sabah shouldn't compare with the past Sabah but should compare with other state.

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    3. Keadaan ekonomi Sabah semakin meningkat di kerajaan BN, memang ada kekurangan, tapi masih boleh di perbaiki lagi.

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  2. Good to hear that Sabah is no longer the poorest, and hopefully one day we may return being the riches state in the country.

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    1. We need efficient management on our natural resources. Besides that, Sabah is blessed with abundance of bio diversities.

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    2. Bukan tidak mungkin, Sabah memang berpotensi menjadi negeri yang terkaya.

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  3. Having to know that sabah is no longer the poorest state is definitely a good news. This show that the effort pays off. However, more effort is needed to continuously eradicate poverty.

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  4. Compared to previous years, sabah has improved a lot but there are still many issues that the government must deal and do in order to make sabah on par with other states.

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  5. jika sabah diuruskan dgn baik, pasti Sabah akan terus maju, membangun dan kaya.

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  6. Dengan kekayaan khazanah alam semulajadi, minyak dan gas, Sabah mampu menjadi antara negeri yang terkaya di Malaysia. apa lagi jika masalah PATI tidak lagi membelenggu Sabah.

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  7. the government is continuously addressing the problem through various programs such as a cooperatives, agropolitan and 1Azam programmes

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  8. Why Sabah still not well establish as compare others especially the richest resources around Sabah. Is there our government management issue?

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  9. banyak industry yang berpotensi di Sabah, harus diuruskan dengan baik untuk membaiki pendapatan negeri.

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  10. Semoga kerajaan tidak mengabaikan perkembangan ekonomi terutama kawasan luar bandar.

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  11. Sabah sebenarnya kaya, tetapi rakyatnya 'miskin' dari segi pengetahuan dan kemahiran.. malah mudah dipengaruhi oleh hasutan pihak pembangkang supaya sentiasa bergantung dengan kerajaan atau parti politik.. negara2 maju yang lain mampu mencapai kemajuan kerana 90% penduduknya memiliki kemahiran dan mampu berdikari tanpa perlu menunggu bantuan tiba..

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  12. dari segi kemudahan infrastruktur, sudah tentu Sabah memerlukan dana yang besar atas faktor fizikal geografinya.. Sabah tidak sama dengan negeri2 lain dimana saiz sesebuah negeri itu juga mampu memainkan peranan dalam meningkatkan kecekapan pentadbiran kerajaan negeri..

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  13. Kerajaan teruskan usaha bagi memastikan apa yang dinyatakan oleh PM itu akan menjadi kenyataan.

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