Agro tourism can generate lucrative income to Sabah

Wednesday, December 12, 2012


KOTA KINABALU: Agro tourism has a great potential in generating lucrative income to Sabah and efforts has been made by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry to further enhance its development for the benefit of the tourism sector in general.

National Productivity Corporation (NPC) director Burhanuddin Saidin stated that the Ministry through its departments and agencies has developed various agro-tourism products such as Sabah Agriculture Park, Tagal System, Weston Wetland Park and Keningau Livestock Farm.

Others include agricultural activities like mushroom industry in Mesilau, goat rearing in Papar and bee farming in Matunggong which have already been developed as part of agro tourism packages, he added.

He was speaking at the opening of a seminar on “Innovative Strategies in Promoting Agro tourism” at a hotel yesterday.

Burhanuddin disclosed the recent Malaysia International Agriculture, Horticulture and Agro Tourism Exhibition (MAHA) 2012, had recorded 3.2 million visitors which is a boost to the agro tourism sector.
“As mentioned by the Minister of Agriculture Malaysia, we have managed to change the people’s perception that agriculture is no longer a sector for the poor or uneducated, but open to all with the promise of lucrative profits”, he said.

He said the seminar is a perfect platform for Malaysia to learn and understand how other countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Holland and Thailand crafting their strategies in developing and promoting agro tourism.

He said the tourism industry is the 7th largest economic contributor to Malaysia with GNI total of RM31.1billion (approximately USD10billion) in 2011.

“We are ranked ninth in the most visited country in the world as recorded by World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) with 24.6 million people visited this country in 2010,“ said Burhanuddin, adding that in Asia, we are number two behind China, which received 55.7 million visitors.

Besides that, he said the government gives various incentives especially to the tour operators.
For instance, starting next year, a tour operator who is handling 750 foreign visitors or 1,500 local holidaymakers will get tax exemption. Therefore, the government is targeting 26.8 million visitors under the Visit Malaysia Year 2013.

The tourism industry is also contributing to the national productivity growth as the arrival of tourists has boosted the domestic consumption, such as accommodation, food and beverage by 4.1 per cent in 2011.

And, in line with the changing expectations for the country to be more innovative and creative, he explained that MPC has aligned itself to meet the challenging demands as outlined in the New Economic Model (NEM) and to accelerate the nation’s transformation in areas of productivity and innovation, and support the aspirations of the nation to achieve a high income economy.

MPC’s new direction is reflected in the newly set up five department model such as Regulatory Review, Enterprise Innovation, Knowledge Management, Business Excellence and Global Competitiveness which focuses on the drivers for higher productivity growth. In the Tenth Malaysia Plan 2011 – 2015, MPC is entrusted to review business regulations for competitiveness and realigned its activities and implemented measures to ensure that it has the necessary capabilities and resources to review existing business regulations with the view to removing unnecessary rules and reducing compliances cost, he said.

He said MPC also undertake productivity enhancement research activities as well as advisory and training to promote enterprise innovation.

“With the setting up of Enterprise Innovation Departments, MPCwas able to better assist industries to enhance their innovation capabilities and improve efficiencies,” said Burhanuddin.

These two core functions were supported by Knowledge Management, Business Excellence and Global Competitiveness, he said.

At the international level, MPC also conducts productivity improvement programmes under the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP), Third Country Training Programme (TCTP) by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Asian Productivity Organisations (APO).

“With the membership of APO, we manage to assign almost 100 participants to various countries in Asia, Europe and USA, covering various fields, such as manufacturing, services and agriculture. The program includes seminar, training courses, conference and exhibition,” he shares.

The seminar which started from yesterday to Dec 16, is jointly organised by MPC, APO, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry Sabah and Colombo Plan in conjunction with an International Training Course on Development, Promotion and Marketing of Agro tourism Products.

It is participated by 18 international participants from 14 countries and featured distinguish foreign speakers-John Chanoki from Japan, Haro Boekhold (Netherlands), Therdchai Choibamroong (Thailand), and Dr. Jen-Son Cheng (Taiwan).

The participants will also have a field trip to Mari-Mari cultural village and Sabah Tea Plantation in Ranau.






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