Najib (right) receiving the Sabah Biomass Industry Development Plan from Tan.

29/02/2016 (Borneo Post) - Sabah aims to maintain its leadership position in biomass-based industries in the country with the backing of the federal government, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah said.

“We have been in the forefront since the National Biomass Strategy 2020 was launched in 2011, and we will strive to stay ahead of the competition now that Sarawak is also in the game,” said Tan who is also Minister of Industrial Development on the sideline of the simultaneous launching of the biomass industry development plans of Sabah and Sarawak by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak at Putrajaya on Thursday.

The launch was coordinated by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), a unit under the Prime Minister’s Department.

The tagline of the event ‘Launchpad for Malaysia as the premier biomass processing hub in South East Asia’ amplifies Malaysia’s ambition to become a world leader in optimising renewable resources particularly in the area of biomass.

“We believe we are ahead because we have overcome the main obstacle to industrialising biomass, that is the aggregation of biomass,”said the minister who delivered the speech of Chief Minister Datuk Musa Haji Aman.

The Sabah Biomass Industry Development Plan (SBIDP) was first unveiled at an international biomass conference in Kuala Lumpur last December.

Thursday’s twin launch of BIDPs reiterated the national biomass focus on the two east Malaysian states who combine for about 50 per cent of Malaysian’s oil palm plantation.

In his speech, Musa said Sabah’s biomass drive was premised on the fact that the state was singled out in the NBS2020 and the Economic Transformation Programme (under oil palm national key economic area, NKEA) as the hub for second generation biofuels.

The state-run Lahad Datu palm oil industrial cluster (POIC Lahad Datu) is also an integral part of Malaysia’s ambition to triple its revenue from the oil palm sector by 2020.

The sector contributed about RM70 billion to the Malaysian economy in 2015.

He announced that the Ministry of Industrial Development would spearhead the realisation of SBIDP, which would form part of the state government’s attempt at deepening the oil palm sector to strengthen the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the State GDP.

At POIC Lahad Datu, more than RM3 billion in investments have been received, and the portfolio included investors from Korea, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Pakistan.

On biomass aggregation which has impeded its industrialisation for a number of years, Musa said: We have now a mechanism to ensure our investors have access to longer term supply and price stability of biomass.

“For the first time, we can say with certainty that some serious biomass investments are coming into Sabah, and one or two of them should start sometime within this year.”

The Chief Minister dwelt at length on Sabah’s intention to use its biomass for high-end, high value biochemical which at present was derived mostly from fossil fuels and was valued at over US$2 trillion.

A major Malaysian conglomerate in partnership with a US technology company is developing a RM2 billion biorefinery at POIC Lahad Datu.

Meanwhile, Najib described the two states’ BIDPs as ‘a major milestone in Malaysia’s bid to become SE Asia’s top biomass processing centre.

He stressed on ‘the instrumental role’ of the two states in broadening the national economy, contributing to the gross national income and making Malaysia a high-income nation.

According to AIM, Sabah can generate up to RM3.2 billion in GNI with biomass and create 25,000 jobs. “If we could convert these biomass resources to higher value products such as biofuels and biochemical, it can create a pathway for further downstream processing into products such as bioplastics,” said the Prime Minister.

On this subject, Musa in his speech called for government investments in setting up the world’s first biochemical plant to produce industrial sugars at POIC Lahad Datu using biomass as feedstock.

He said the plant, which costs upwards of US$200 million, would unlock the biomass/biochemical potentials and open a floodgate for global off takers who would use the sugars for a myriad of downstream applications.

Sugars are essential building blocks in many industrial and manufacturing processes.

The conversion of sugars from biomass will create high-value bio-based products, enable widespread industrialisation, create jobs and new wealth.

“Use of sugars as raw materials for sustainable production of existing industrial chemicals offers great potential for Sabah’s oil palm biomass producers. It will create value and help transform the global chemical industry to one based on sustainable feedstock.

“Sabah is ready to be the bio refining hub of Malaysia, if not the world,” said Musa.