KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji Haji Noor has asked
European Union (EU) Ambassador to Malaysia, Michalis Rochas to correct
misconceptions about the country’s oil palm industry after having personally seen for
himself the sustainable and best practice carried out by Sabah’s oil palm sector.
Hajiji said Sabah has all this while been promoting sustainable practice in oil palm
cultivation contrary to what the EU anti-palm oil lobbies have been spreading negatively
and widely.
Meeting with Rochas and his delegation at Sri Gaya here Tuesday, the Chief Minister
welcomed the ambassador’s commitment to highlighting Sabah’s development priority in
agriculture, industrial and tourism as well as the energy sector to the EU.
Hajiji appreciated that Sabah’s total trade with the EU was about RM4.2 billion (RM3.3
billion in export and RM800 million in imports).
“EU is an important trading partner. We want to see more investments and increased
trade with the EU,” he said.
Hajiji said the State Government is keen to forge greater partnership with the EU to tackle
environmental issues and welcomed the EU’s offer of support and expertise in this area.
The Chief Minister said Sabah has done much to meet the national commitment of
maintaining 50 percent under forest cover and ensuring 52 percent of the state’s forest
as permanent forest reserves, parks and wildlife conservation areas.
Meanwhile, Rochas agreed that there has always been a misconception about palm oil
among the EU countries and that it needed to be corrected.
During his stay here, Rochas had also visited Sawit Kinabalu’s oil palm plantation among
others where he saw the good work done on environmental conservation by the State
Government.
“I have seen it myself and it (conservation efforts) is very commendable. I was thrilled to
see for myself an Orang Utan and its baby although only from afar.” he said adding that an
air survey also showed many orangutan nests atop the trees indicating all is well for the
wildlife.
“But, the EU doesn’t know about this yet. We need to go back and give the true impression
of the situation in Sabah.
“I will convey this to Brussels (EU headquarters),” he said
“I want to correct and enhance the view on the oil palm industry in Malaysia,” he assured
the Chief Minister.
“Your forest is an asset, a world heritage and that is why we care about it,” he said while
praising the State Government for the immense effort to protect Sabah’s forest.
Rochas also offered assistance on biodiversity conservation with EU funding to the State
Government as well as improving collaboration between the EU and Sabah through
technical support and expertise.\
“Malaysia is an important country to EU. About 40 per cent of EU trade is in Malaysia.There is much to explore in Sabah,” he said, adding that he looks forward to enhancing partnership in view of the wealth of potential partnerships in trade and
conservation efforts.
Rochas had also invited NGOs such as WWF-Malaysia, Blu Hope and Stop Fish Bombing
Malaysia to share the status of their projects, all partially or wholly sponsored by the EU.
WWF-Malaysia Conservation Director Dr Henry Chan briefed the Chief Minister that
Sabah’s sustainable palm oil can be globally recognised by fostering stakeholder
institutions to collaborate in attaining common goals; enhancing institutional arrangement
to facilitate the management of cross-cutting issues and adopting the living landscape
approach to overcome deforestation and biodiversity loss.
Blu Hope founder/CEO Simon Christopher on the other hand briefed Hajiji on its efforts
to make Sabah a plastic neutral state through different recycling technologies that give
monetary value to plastic wastes.
Also in the delegation were First Counsellor, Delegation of the EU to Malaysia, Francesco
Floris, Blu Hope Marketing/PR Director, Michelle de la Harpe, Senior Advisor, Business
Finland, Mohamed Farid, Country Head – Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia Clewat Ltd,
Henri Mikael Vaitti, Chief Operating Officer, Riverrecycle Oy, Nuutinen, Stop Fish
Bombing Malaysia, Director, Terence Lim and Stop Fish Bombing Malaysia, Director UN,
Sylvia Pius.
State Secretary Datuk Seri Panglima Sr Safar Untong, State Attorney General, Datuk Nor
Asiah Mohd Yusof and Sawit Kinabalu Group Managing Director, Datuk Bacho Jansie
were present.-pr/BNN
