20/02/2012 (New Straits Times) - The Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) here has managed to attract a total of RM4.5 billion of investments since 2008, said POIC chief executive officer Datuk Dr Pang Teck Wai.

He said POIC Lahad Datu had the largest concentration of major Malaysian and foreign investors in one geographical location in Sabah.

He said this when briefing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who visited the industrial cluster at the end of his two-day visit to the state yesterday.

"Aside from the brisk pace with which POIC Lahad Datu attracted 39 investors so far, the commercial viability of the state government-owned project was recently endorsed by Petronas, which is investing in a re-gasification terminal, while Tenaga Nasional Bhd is building a 300MW power plant due for commissioning in 2015," Dr Pang said.

Since the inception of the project in 2005, state and Federal Government support had enabled the development of more than 600ha of land, the completion of two sets of liquid jetties, a bulk jetty and industrial lots, among other developments.

Dr Pang said to achieve the target of industrial investments totalling RM100 billion in the next 20 years and at the same time uplifting the per capita income of Malaysians in Sabah, POIC was planning the construction of a container port.

He also said although palm oil would remain the core business of POIC Lahad Datu, there were plans to leverage on its geographical location in BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area) and to develop the cluster into a regional logistics hub.