By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, April 28: Deputy Premier of Sarawak Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan had a networking session with Business Sweden, an agency that promotes Swedish companies’ global growth and foreign direct investors’ expansion in Sweden.
Awang Tengah was in Stockholm for a two-day working visit to promote Sarawak as an investment destination for Swedish investors, as well as to explore opportunities for collaboration in forest management, plantation, and technology to process planted timber species.
According to a press release, the Deputy Premier was briefed by Swedish Forest Agencies, Swedish Wood Building Council, Ecco Innovation Foundation, and Billerud on topics such as the development of forest industries in Sweden, the use of engineered wood to construct timber structures, Ecco Innovation Foundation collaboration with other countries in Southeast Asia, and the pulp and paper industry.
The industry has a structured mission to achieve a circular bio-based society for Sweden.
During the same session, Paul Valentine, General Manager of Sarawak Planted Forest Sdn Bhd, provided an overview of the development status of planted forests in Sarawak, as well as opportunities for future collaborations and investments in digital technology, mechanisation for planted forest harvesting, and the production of high value-added products such as pulp, paper, engineered wood, and biomass fuel for the Swedish business communities.
The Deputy Premier invited the Swedish business community to consider investing in Sarawak’s forestry, forest plantation, and wood-related industries.
He pointed out that Sarawak is transitioning to a sustainable and renewable wood-based industry that uses material from forest plantations to produce engineered wood, biomass fuels, pulp, and paper.
Sarawak also a geographic advantage because it is close to large markets with high growth rates, such as China, Japan, India, South Korea and Australia.
Meanwhile, Business Sweden sees potential opportunities in Sarawak for research and innovation, digital forest management applications, forest industries for wood structure construction, and human capital development, according to the press release.
Business Sweden, in collaboration with industries and agencies, will continue to engage in dialogues with Sarawak to identify areas of mutual interest that can be considered and implemented in the future.
Also present during the working visit were Swedish Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Joachim Bengstrom; Deputy Minister for Urban Planning, Land Administration, and Natural Resources, Datuk Len Talif Salleh; Advisor to the Ministry of International Trade, Industry, and Investment (MINTRED), Dato Sri Mohd Naroden; Director of Forests, Datu Hamden Mohammad; Permanent Secretary of MINTRED, Dzulkornain Masron; General Manager of Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC), Zainal Abidin Abdullah; Advisor to STIDC, Datu Hashim Bojet; CEO of Invest Sarawak Timothy Ong; and CEO of PUSAKA Capital Sdn Bhd, Mohd Nor Topek Julaihi. – DayakDaily
