(News) – Sabah Development Corridor for 900,000 jobs

On August 1, 2007 I posted a post with the title: (News) – The Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) and today we heard that our Premier, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said “This is not a daydream. We are not making an empty promise”. What does he mean by that? It is reported in local dailies that a total of RM105billlion in investments, 900,000 jobs, a waterfront city, tourism projects and a RM600million new Sabah Railwat terminal – these are among the things Sabahans will get when the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) is completed in 18 years.

In my previous post on NCER, I said “All these developments will have an impact in our life. We will see how it goes.” This statement is inline with the Premier statement today when he said that “Tackling poverty cuts across racial and religious lines and the Government's target of eradicating the problem in 18 years is achievable”.

He outlined five key thrusts of the SDC, which will be to:

1. > make Sabah the gateway for trade, investment and tourism in the region.
2. > transform the state into a harmonious and prosperous state regardless of race or religion.
3. > make the state more technology-savvy to ensure a better quality of life.
4. > provide job opportunities in the state.
5. > make Sabah a comfortable state to live in with good quality of life accentuated with diverse cultures, heritage and environment.

What interest me are item no. 3 and item no. 4 which are related to what I am going to achieve online. That is to have a better broadband capability for the country as a whole and to Sabah in particular so that online business could take off to the next level between marketers in Peninsular Malaysia and with those in Sabah. This market sector have a great potential which already shown the impact to developed country like the United States way back in early 90's. This is somehow I have said before in my previous post, “Surely, online business will also grow. Hopefully, Malaysia will also improve its broadband capacity to cater for the new businesses”. SDC will create more jobs offline or conventionally as reported for 900,000 jobs but the way I see it when item 3 above is fully develop, far more jobs shall be created online as well. Broadband will also trigger tourism industry as more and more tourists from developed countries will like to visit Malaysia simply because they are more towards an online community. So when they are in Malaysia, they will not miss their home so much as they will be connected to their families online. So blogging could be fun even when one are enjoying a cool breeze and the nature from Sabah forestry destinations. A superb way to promote Malaysia to those who are baby boomers or technology savvy tourists.

My previous thoughts were discussed and posted at The Borneo Post Online and BERNAMA.