Sabah CM envisages SOGIP as Southeast Asia's petrochemical gas, petroleum downstream hub

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that infrastructure and land readiness were among the important issues that must be addressed by the Sabah Oil and Gas Development Corporation (SOGDC), as the promoter of SOGIP, to attract investors.

Hence, in regard to infrastructure in SOGIP, the chief minister said the state government will play its part by providing funds under Sabah Maju Jaya Halatuju and through federal allocation under the 12th Malaysia Plan.

"SOGDC needs to work extra hard to ensure positive growth of Sabah's oil and gas industry and in particular improve SOGIP's position in the petrochemical cluster within the SEA region aside from creating high quality jobs for the people," he said.

He said this while chairing SOGDC's Board of Directors (BoD) meeting at Sabah State Administrative Centre here, today.

Earlier, he presented letters of appointment to the new BoD lineup.

SOGDC's new BoD comprises Deputy Chief Minister cum Industrial Development Minister Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam; its managing director cum chief executive officer Abdul Kadir Damsal; three permanent secretaries - Rusdin Riman (Finance), Jasmin Julpin (Works), and Thomas Logijin (Industrial Development).

Other board members are former Petronas Chemicals Group Sabah Project and Project Management (project directorate) Datuk Mohd Shariff Ibrahim, the chief minister's political secretary, Dr Roland Chia and former nominated assemblyman Ronnie Loh Ee Eng.

Hajiji who is also the corporation's chairman believes SOGDC with its new team would move to the forefront and become more efficient and proactive in managing SOGIP.

He noted that the development of Sabah's oil and gas industry in general has experienced rapid growth with the discovery of deepwater oil fields in its waters in the past few years.

"Improved terms in the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) by Petronas has allowed better management of the upstream sector and enabled the country and Sabah in particular to progress in terms of its hydrocarbon resources," he added.

Hajiji said it is the state government's aspiration to not only boost revenue via oil and gas from taxes but also achieve inclusivity whereby people will have bigger opportunities and benefit economically be it directly or indirectly from the sector.