The estab­lish­ment of the SBF Recov­ery Biz­Fund which will provide much needed sup­port to Sarawakian com­pan­ies still reel­ing from the dev­ast­at­ing impact of Covid-19 and the ensu­ing Move­ment Con­trol Order (MCO) that affected eco­nom­ies world­wide.

SBF con­sists of 21 busi­ness asso­ci­ations in the state and is chaired by Datuk Sri Abang Abdul Karim Tun Openg, Pres­id­ent of Sarawak Cham­ber of Com­merce and Industry (SCCI).

The fund­ing stands testi­mony to the recog­ni­tion by the state Gov­ern­ment of the import­ance and lead­er­ship role of SBF in devel­op­ing human cap­ital and uplift­ing busi­nesses in the state.

The strategy sets a tar­get of doub­ling Sarawak’s eco­nomy from RM136 bil­lion in 2019 to RM282 bil­lion in 2030 through data- and innov­a­tion-driven eco­nomic activ­it­ies based on the prin­ciples of eco­nomic prosper­ity, social inclus­iv­ity and sus­tain­ab­il­ity.

Its ulti­mate goal is to trans­form the state to become an eco­nom­ic­ally developed and advanced state by 2030.

Mean­while, Dr Renco Yong, pres­id­ent of Sarawak Asso­ci­ation of Mari­time Indus­tries (SAMIN) said that sev­eral of its mem­bers will be con­duct­ing courses rel­ev­ant to the mari­time indus­tries under the Biz­Fund.

“The courses cover a range of top­ics such as hand­ling of boats, work­ing at height and in con­fined space, safe hand­ling of chem­ic­als and fire safety.

“Attend­ance to these courses is free and will be covered using the Biz­Fund”, he said.

Dr. Renco said local mari­time industry play­ers in par­tic­u­lar and other indus­tries in gen­eral stand to bene­fit from the Biz­Fund to develop and upgrade skills of work­ers in the state.

“The fund will go a long way towards elev­at­ing the skills of Sarawakian in the mari­time industry and enhance the com­pet­it­ive­ness of local industry play­ers. This would not hurt Sarawak’s pro­spects of becom­ing a mari­time hub in the Borneo region and put it on the map of inter­na­tion­ally com­pet­it­ive mari­time cen­ters,” he added.