KUCHING: Twenty-four projects worth RM39.94 billion have been approved for mega development in Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) since 2008.

Assistant Minister of Entrepreneur and Small, Medium Enterprise (SME) Development Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais said 11 of these approved projects valued at RM19.06 billion are being implemented, creating a total of 10,262 jobs.

“These approved projects are expected to generate a total of 17,828 jobs. We are also having two new investments which have been approved.

“One of the duo is steel project valued at RM17 billion and the other being foaming agent project worth RM500 million,” he said when replying to questions by Jemoreng assemblyman Datuk Murshid Dr Juanda Jaya and Tellian assemblyman Yussibnosh Balo in the august house yesterday.

Naroden, who is Assistant Minister of E-Commerce, said SCORE is presently at its Phase II implementation for the period from 2016 to 2020 with focus on cluster development, value-chain industry and research and development (R&D).

He said the Sarawak government is engaging further efforts to promote SCORE among investors from outside Sarawak and Malaysia.

Apart from that, he said the Sarawak government would continue to put in place various infrastructure including telecommunication services and human resource to attract foreign investments.

According to him, SCORE is situated between Jemoreng and Tellian, covering a total area of 70,000 sq km.

Since 2017, Naroden said the coverage of SCORE had been extended to 100,000 sq km to include central and northern regions of Sarawak including Limbang and Lawas.

He added that the Mukah division including Jemoreng state constituency had been included in the SCORE development area.

“Jemoreng is strategically located between Mukah and Tanjung Manis which are two important growth nodes of SCORE. Jemoreng can benefit from the development in these areas.”

Naroden told the House that three agencies had been set up under the Regional Corridor Development Authority (Recoda).

They are the Upper Rajang Development Agency (Urda), Highland Development Agency (HDA) and Northern Region Development Agency (NRDA).

These agencies, he said, were established to facilitate and speed up the implementation of various projects within the areas of SCORE.

Towards this end, he pointed out that the Sarawak government had set aside RM1.5 billion each for Urda, HDA and NRDA to provide infrastructure including roads, bridges and electricity and water supply within SCORE areas.

He added that the mega projects had successfully attracted ‘trigger industries’ such as aluminium smelter, ferro alloys and polycrystalline silicon.