20/06/2011 (Bernama) - The Sarawak government needs to intensify efforts to encourage more small medium enterprises (SMEs) in the state to venture into plantation sector and by allocating land to small plantation owners to help them increase their earning capabilities.

Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sarawak (ACCCIS) president, Sia Hiong Ngee, said the average income for a two-hectare allotment of palm oil was RM682-900 per month compared with RM350-RM1,000 for rubber and wood.

"It is a well-known fact that oil palm plantation has been providing much-needed jobs besides being the best alternative for the local communities currently involved in rubber cultivation, subsistence rice farming and fruit gardens to help increase their income levels," he said at the ACCCIS' general annual meeting here today.

The call for the state government to emphasis on the promotion of small- and medium-sized plantations to enable small plantation owners to benefit from agricultural development was one of the resolutions passed at the meeting.

Sia said SMEs were the key to the transition from agriculture-led to industrial economy as they provided opportunities for processing activities which could generate sustainable livelihoods.

Studies had found that palm oil had been the catalyst of rural development in Malaysia and that much of the forests converted for oil palm were previously logged or zoned for agriculture, he said.

"It has also been projected that Sarawak, which accounted for 10 per cent of the total 3.31 million ha currently under oil palm cultivation in the country, would have more than one million hectares of the crop by the year-end," he said.

Kuching Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, Datuk Wee Kok Tiong, took over from Sia as ACCCIS president.