24/11/2011 (Borneo Post) - Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing yesterday rapped Chong Chieng Jen (DAP-Kota Sentosa) and the rest of the opposition members for claiming no funds were allocated for the development expenditure of his ministry.

“The allocation of development funds  need not appear in the budget estimates for a ministry as most of these would appear directly in the budget estimates of the agencies under the control of relevant ministries,” Masing said in his winding-up speech yesterday.

He said  some ministries did not implement development projects directly, but did so through agencies or government linked companies (GLC) under their control.

“Not all development programmes or projects are government-funded. The state government has long encouraged  the private sector to lead investments in all sectors of the economy.”

Masing said this could be seen in the development of oil palm plantations on state land or NCR land.

The Land Development Ministry had been entrusted with the task of monitoring the development of the oil palm industry in the state.

“There are about 313 oil palm estates, 53 palm oil mills, four palm kernel crushers and five refineries located throughout Sarawak.”

“So it is unfair for the Kota Sentosa assemblyman to say my ministry is doing nothing.”

Masing added that for 2012, the ministry and its two agencies had approved a total budget of RM469.2 million.

This amount was made up of soft loans and grants for the state, soft loans and grants from federal government, and internal funds obtained from Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) for development and capital expenditure and operating expenses.

He informed the august house that the breakdown of dividends for Krian folks had been finalised and audited.

“The account of Salcra oli palm estates are kept on an estate-to-estate basis up to the phase level comprising five to 10 blocks each. The detailed profits and loss accounts for the estates will be distributed once the 2011 accounts have been finalised and audited.”

He said the state government had launched ‘Skim Tanam Baru Sawit Pekebun Kecil’ (TBSPK) to expand the hectarage of land cultivated with oil palms inSarawak.

“The objective is to attain an income above the poverty line index of RM850 per month per family. Within the first seven months, a total of 2,021 hectares involving 1,075 landowners have been implemented on the ground.”

The programme received overwhelming response from landowners throughout the state, he added.