MARKET DEVELOPMENT
TPPA Scrapping No Effect on Palm Oil
TPPA Scrapping No Effect on Palm Oil
06/02/2017 (Daily Express) - Sabah's export of crude palm oil (CPO) is not negatively affected by a change of policy by the new US President Donald Trump who officially pulled out the world's biggest economy from the Trans- Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) last month.
Deputy Chief Minister cum Industrial Development Minister Datuk Seri Raymond Tan said the State government has looked into a China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as an alternative option to export the State's CPO.
He said RCEP has 16 countries including the 10 Asean countries (Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) in addition to China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand that already have strong trade links with Asean.
"There is a change in Sabah's direction for export and investment when Trump made the executive decision to withdraw from the TPPA that has caused a change in global trading.
"It was a disappointment (for us) as we did anticipate a market size growth of hundreds of million Ringgit with market penetration of the State's CPO to the US and South America in the TPPA which China did not join.
"However, it made us realise that there is another direction that we could take by looking into an alternative of a bigger market which China is promoting through its RCEP whereby China President Xi Jin Ping believes in global trading and free trade," he said.
Tan said this to reporters at a Chinese New Year luncheon at the Sabah Today Biz Centre here on Thursday.
Also present were Department of Industrial Relations director Patrick Tan under Tan's ministry, POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd Chief Executive Officer Dr Pang Teck Wai, Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) Sdn Bhd Chief Executive Officer Melvin Disimond, Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park (Sogip) General Manager Abdul Kadir Abdullah @ Damsal, Sabah Economic Development Corporation (Sedco) Group General Manager Pg Saifuddin Pg Tahir and other senior officials.
Furthermore, Tan said Malaysia is also moving towards doing global trading with China whereby the International Trade Minister Dato' Sri Mustapa Mohamed was reported last year as saying that Malaysia is looking to push the RCEP, mooted by China as part of its outreach to the 10-member Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean).
"In fact, Malaysia was the earliest Asean country to do business with China which Sabah now can capitalise for its CPO.
"In addition, bilateral deals worth USD34 billion were signed between Malaysia and China during Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak's visit to China in November that will grow the nation's economy," he said.
According to Tan, another bigger market for the State's CPO is India to which Sabah is exporting more than to China.
Last year, he said Malaysia did quite well in terms of its CPO production where there was an increase from 15.8 million metric tonnes of CPO in 2015 up to 20 million metric tonnes last year, generating export earnings of about RM60.1 billion.
Tan said Sabah will continue to focus on developing its downstream industries particularly the CPO by going into biomass which is the reason why the Palm Oil Industrial Clusters (POIC) in Lahad Datu and Sandakan were set up.
As a matter of fact, he said the POIC Lahad Datu which has been around for 10 years had contributed much to Sabah's earnings.
Deputy Chief Minister cum Industrial Development Minister Datuk Seri Raymond Tan said the State government has looked into a China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as an alternative option to export the State's CPO.
He said RCEP has 16 countries including the 10 Asean countries (Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) in addition to China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand that already have strong trade links with Asean.
"There is a change in Sabah's direction for export and investment when Trump made the executive decision to withdraw from the TPPA that has caused a change in global trading.
"It was a disappointment (for us) as we did anticipate a market size growth of hundreds of million Ringgit with market penetration of the State's CPO to the US and South America in the TPPA which China did not join.
"However, it made us realise that there is another direction that we could take by looking into an alternative of a bigger market which China is promoting through its RCEP whereby China President Xi Jin Ping believes in global trading and free trade," he said.
Tan said this to reporters at a Chinese New Year luncheon at the Sabah Today Biz Centre here on Thursday.
Also present were Department of Industrial Relations director Patrick Tan under Tan's ministry, POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd Chief Executive Officer Dr Pang Teck Wai, Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) Sdn Bhd Chief Executive Officer Melvin Disimond, Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park (Sogip) General Manager Abdul Kadir Abdullah @ Damsal, Sabah Economic Development Corporation (Sedco) Group General Manager Pg Saifuddin Pg Tahir and other senior officials.
Furthermore, Tan said Malaysia is also moving towards doing global trading with China whereby the International Trade Minister Dato' Sri Mustapa Mohamed was reported last year as saying that Malaysia is looking to push the RCEP, mooted by China as part of its outreach to the 10-member Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean).
"In fact, Malaysia was the earliest Asean country to do business with China which Sabah now can capitalise for its CPO.
"In addition, bilateral deals worth USD34 billion were signed between Malaysia and China during Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak's visit to China in November that will grow the nation's economy," he said.
According to Tan, another bigger market for the State's CPO is India to which Sabah is exporting more than to China.
Last year, he said Malaysia did quite well in terms of its CPO production where there was an increase from 15.8 million metric tonnes of CPO in 2015 up to 20 million metric tonnes last year, generating export earnings of about RM60.1 billion.
Tan said Sabah will continue to focus on developing its downstream industries particularly the CPO by going into biomass which is the reason why the Palm Oil Industrial Clusters (POIC) in Lahad Datu and Sandakan were set up.
As a matter of fact, he said the POIC Lahad Datu which has been around for 10 years had contributed much to Sabah's earnings.