Petronas-Sarawak meeting reaches agreement on 7 issues: Adenan

Seven issues pertaining to the employment of more Sarawakians in Petronas were amicably reached at the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya on Friday, at a meeting between the Sarawak Government and Petronas.

Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem said Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Petronas CEO Datuk Wan Zulkifli Wan Ariffin were also present in the meeting.

Speaking at a media conference here Saturday, with his deputy, Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and State Secretary Tan Sri Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Gani, Adenan said the first agreement reached was that Petronas had agreed for a Sarawakian to be a member of its board of directors.

"I recommended Mohamad Morshidi to represent the state. He incidentally, had worked for Petronas before and he will report to the state every six months or whenever needed," he said.

Secondly, Adenan said, the 192 posts currently vacant would be advertised in local papers and filled by Sarawakians.

"Petronas should consult the state government if no Sarawakian is suitable for any of them.

"Thirdly, it will provide up to 50 places for Sarawakians to do undergraduates studies at the University Technology PETRONAS in Perak," he said.

Fourthly, he said Petronas would intensify technical training, as well as enroll more Sarawakians in their training centres nationwide.

On the fifth agreement, the chief minister said Petronas had indicated its commitment to support two petrochemical industries, now under final negotiation.

"It will also support other Petrochemical and downstream industries upon completion of the joint study on petrochemical industries with the state government.

"On the sixth agreement, Petronas, together with the federal government will also consider the Sarawak Government's intention to participate in Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) so that Sarawak can benefit from such contracts.

"Lastly, Petronas has agreed to recruit more Sarawakians from the non-executive to the management levels.

"Petronas has agreed to increase the number of Sarawakians at the management level from the current 33 percent to 60 percent.

"It agrees to increase those at the managerial level from 41 percent currently, to 60 percent and at the executive level, from 48 percent to 75 percent," said Adenan, adding that for the non-executive level, the number would be maintained at 95 percent.

He said this was the working plan put out by Petronas to increase the number of Sarawakian workers and the figures would be achieved by 2020.

For the record, he said there were now 3,880 Sarawakians out of the 5,190 Petronas employees in the state.

"There are about 1,000 Sarawakians in Petronas outside the state."

Adenan said Mohamad Morshidi would chair a subcommitee meeting soon to review the issuance of work permit, with a view to lifting some which were being frozen.

"The state will review all 586 positions now pending approval for work permit to ensure that Sarawakians are given priority to fill the posts.

"With regards to royalty and other matters, these wil be discussed later," he said, adding he was happy with what had been achieved so far.

This was just the beginning of an amicable relation, he noted.

"This is the first step and we are still talking. I hope all quarters will refrain from making any comment as we are still negotiating on a very delicate matter," said the chief minister.