PETRA JAYA: A slew of development projects and programmes under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11thMP) have been approved for the state.
State Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh said 1,718 projects were approved by the Federal government and the state administration under the 11thMP.
The state government, he said, approved RM20 billion to fund 1,140 projects under the 11thMP.
Wong said 702 of the projects involved physical development while the remaining amount was implemented in the forms of programmes and investments.
“Until Sept 30 this year, 71 physical development projects involving an allocation of RM5.36 billion have been completed.
“The remaining 613 physical development projects are still in the implementation process,” said Wong in his winding up speech during the State Legislative Assembly Sitting here.
The Federal Government, Wong said, approved 538 projects for Sarawak under the second rolling plan of the 11thMP.
“As of Sept 30, 72 Federal Government projects have been completed while the remaining 506 projects are still in progress,” he said adding that the Federal Government have spent RM2.36 billion to fund the cost of the completed project.
Earlier, the August-house was told that Sarawak has almost reach its target of turning 72 per cent of the total six million hectares forest into Permanent Forest Estate (PFE).
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said until last month, a total of 4.32 million hectares of forest have been gazetted as PFE.
“We are nearing our goal to gazette six million hectares forests into PFE, which could be achieved soon,” said Awang Tengah, who is also the State Urban Development and Natural Resources Minister.
He also said a total of 948,034 hectares forest in the state have been gazetted as Totally Protected Areas.