KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew will lead a team of experts to Jakarta, Indonesia tomorrow to discuss collaborative programmes on rhinoceros conservation.
She said the team, comprising of representatives from Sabah Wildlife Department and non-governmental organistions Borneo Rhino Alliance and World Wildlife Fund, would pursue the matter on the first day of arrival.
"We will hold talks with our Jakarta counterpart on In-Virto Fertalisation (IVF) programme, which has been going on for the last 10 years but with no result. We will have a serious meeting and hope this trip will bear fruit.
"We are left with only one (female) rhino. It is ill and not able to have baby rhinos. We hope to work with Jakarta, which has about 50 rhinos, on reproduction effort," she told reporters after the state assembly sitting here, today.
During their trip to Jakarta, the state Tourism, Culture, and Environment Minister said the team would also visit a safari park in Bogor.
Liew said the team would be looking at the potential of having similar safari park establishment in Sabah but in a much bigger scale.
"I'm there to learn from existing operators because my ministry is always on the lookout for new tourism initiatives to turn Sabah into a place of wonder.
"We will also be heading to Singapore to meet with the local authority officials. We want to study their Airbnb system and by-laws.
"I am told that Singapore is successful in regulating Airbnb business," she said, adding representatives from the Kota Kinabalu City Hall will also join in the working trip.
Speaking on tourists' arrival to Sabah, Liew noted Sabah Tourism Board recorded 2.016 million tourists with RM4.34 billion tourism receipts from January to June this year.
She said Chinese tourists remains the largest, followed by South Koreans, Bruneians, Taiwanese, British, and Irish.