KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal is on his first working visit to Kalimantan to explore further bilateral cooperation between Sabah and Indonesia.
Arriving in Balikpapan yesterday, Shafie met with East Kalimantan governor Isran Noor and discussed on the region's development as well as the capital city development plan.
Shafie was accompanied by his Deputy Chief Ministers Datuk Jaujan Sambakong and Datuk Christina Liew; state Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Junz Wong; state Education and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Yusof Yaacob; and state government secretary Datuk Seri Hashim Paijan.
The delegates’ first day of visit has shown positive signs towards economic, tourism, and education cooperation with Kalimantan.
A briefing and Q&A session between the Sabah ministers and official representatives from East Kalimantan were also carried out.
Among the discussions brought up during the meeting was the possibility of reorganising Borneo Games that was once popular in the Borneo island.
Sabah's role in assisting the development of East Kalimantan tourism sector with Sabah being a Tourism Hub was also discussed.
Meanwhile, Shafie also visited the 99km toll road project connecting two largest cities in East Kalimantan, namely Balikpapan and Samarinda.
Meanwhile in education sector, Dr Yusof witnessed the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), UiTM Kota Kinabalu and SIDMA College with Universitas Balikpapan on related programmes, including student exchange.
Also present were UMS vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Taufiq Yap Yun Hin, UiTM Kota Kinabalu campus director Associate Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Kadir Rosline and SIDMA College chairman Prof Dr. Morni Kambrie.