Chief Minister Musa Aman |
KOTA KINABALU: The State Government will always support any proposal
that is good for Sabah, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said.
Musa
said this in response to the proposal by AirAsia’s Group CEO Tan Sri
Tony Fernandes on the need to have the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT)
here expanded so that the state’s tourism sector can grow.
Musa
who was met after officiating at the seminar on ‘Sabah Furniture
Industry – A potential Hub’ here yesterday, said the state government
would have to look at the proposal.
“We can ask the relevant
parties or departments, especially the Transport Ministry which are in
charge, they have to look into it. If it is viable then why not? But
first of all we must get the approval of the Transport Ministry and
convince it that it is necessary,” Musa stressed.
“We will always support anything that is good for Sabah,” he added.
Tony
when speaking at the Sabah International Business Luncheon Talk 2012
here last week, pointed out that “low cost is very important and we want
Sabah to have the biggest low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) in the
Pacific ring,”
He believed the airport would be one of the
critical areas Sabah needed to look at, especially as it has a huge
potential to be the mid-point between Australia and north Asia where
demand for low-cost air travel services was rapidly growing.
“We
want people in Tokyo to open up the newspapers and say hey, we can go to
Kota Kinabalu. And when they come, they will spread this by word of
mouth. We also need to push, which is happening, the BIMP-EAGA as well.
The tourism potential in the region is massive and AirAsia can play a
part in that.
“There is a huge economic upside in making Sabah the
biggest LCC hub in this part of the world. So, that’s something I would
love and encourage,” Tony said.
Malah bukan Datuk Musa Aman sahaja yang menyokong pendirian Airasia, sebaliknya beberapa anggota Parlimen juga turut sependapat dengan beliau antaranya termasuklah Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahalan, Datuk Salleh Kalbi, Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi, Mohd Nor Othman dan Datuk Chua Soon Bui.
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