Government to continue with green initiatives to conserve environment

The government will continue to implement initiatives to expand eco-friendly and green technology practices to support the conservation of the environment for the wellbeing of the people, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He said Malaysia is on the right track in the planning and implementation of sustainable and green technology development.

"The biannual 2012 Environment Performance Index (EPI) Report by Yale University put Malaysia 25 out of 132 countries, up from 54 in the 2010 report," he said when launching Green Foundation Malaysia (YaHijau) at Likas Sports Complex, in Kota Kinabalu, Sunday.

Among those present were Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili and Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

Deputy Prime Minister said the government would also focus on implementing the National Green Technology Policy holistically and continuously to ensure sustainable economic development.

Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister said items in the policy include implementation of utility savings of five percent this year by ministries and agencies.

Industries, especially small and medium industries (SMI) were encouraged to improve the efficiency of green technology specified in the Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Master Plan 2012-2020.

The government had also introduced the Green Technology Financing Scheme (GTFS) in 2010 to support industries in developing green technology capabilities.

Up to Feb 2014, GTFS has benefited 124 green technology based projects developed by local SMEs via easy financing of RM1.66 billion from the RM3.5 billion provided by the government.

Muhyiddin said the initiative created 1,729 green jobs realised via the implementation of these projects adding the government has another RM1.84 billion for the purpose.

"I urge industries, especially, the SMEs to take advantage of this financial aid to improve efficiency based on eco-friendly standards."

The government via Budget 2014 also gave incentive such as investment tax allowance on the purchase of green technology equipment and tax exemption on the use of green technology systems.

At the event, Muhyiddin witnessed the exchange of documents of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between YaHijau, the Education Ministry and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to promote green living practices among students.