06/07/2012 (Bernama) - The Government has identified the booming oil palm industry as one of the prime sectors to stimulate the economy and propel Malaysia into a high-income nation by 2020, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said Thursday.

He said the industry's rapid growth has contributed immensely to the country's economic progress and rural socio-economic development besides providing jobs to more than one million people who are engaged in the industry's diverse sub-sectors.

The meteoric expansion in oil palm-planted areas to five million hectares, spanning more than 70 per cent of the country's agriculture areas, has leap-frogged the oil palm sector as Malaysia's pillar of the agriculture sector.

"With the production of 18.91 million tonnes of crude palm oil and palm oil exports soaring to 24.27 million tonnes, the industry raked in RM83.4 billion export revenue last year," he said when launching the Malaysia Palm Oil Board- Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Endowed Chair in Oil Palm Industry Development for a Sustainable Economy. The text of his speech was read out by the ministry's secretary-general Datin Paduka Nurmala Abdul Rahim.

Dompok said oil palm has become the choice crop for agriculture land and smallholders' development than other crops due to higher monetary returns, backed by stable market price.