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Bars urge <b>Sarawak</b> to reconsider entry bans - The Borneo Post Online Berita Sarawak - News 2 Sarawak

Bars urge <b>Sarawak</b> to reconsider entry bans - The Borneo Post Online

Posted: 27 Mar 2014 12:19 PM PDT

KUCHING: The three Bars of Malaysia – Advocates' Association of Sarawak (AAS), Sabah Law Association (SLA) and the Malaysian Bar – jointly expressed their deep concern in relation to the Sarawak government's move to deny opposition politicians entry into the state.

The opposition members who were denied entry into the state of Sarawak on March 25 were Rafizi Ramli, Chua Tian Chang and Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

The latest PKR leader barred was Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin, who is also PKR Women chief, yesterday.

"Ramli and Chua are MPs for Pandan and Batu constituencies, respectively. All three were held upon their arrival at Sibu Airport by Immigration officers before being placed on board a flight back to Kuala Lumpur that same day," said a joint statement.

"This measure by which the state government has chosen to act goes directly against the guarantee of freedom of movement enshrined in Article 9 of the Federal Constitution.

"Under Article 9, every citizen of Malaysia has the right to move freely throughout the Federation," the three Bars of Malaysia said in a joint statement signed by the presidents of AAS Khairil Azmi Mohd Hasbie, SLA GBB Nandy @ Ganesh and Malaysian Bar Christopher Leong yesterday.

Notwithstanding the special safeguards accorded to Sarawak under the Federal Constitution, the three Bars of Malaysia strongly urged the Sarawak government to exercise sparingly, fairly and with just cause the statutory powers it has over immigration and border controls.

"Section 67 of the Immigration Act 1959/63 makes it clear that the State's powers to restrict entry shall not have effect on a citizen who can show that he or she enters the state for the sole purpose of engaging in legitimate political activity."

The three Bars of Malaysia said that in a country that professes democracy and free elections, such powers to restrict must not be used to obstruct the rights of citizens to participate freely and legally in the country's public affairs.

The three Bars of Malaysia called on the Sarawak State Government to immediately reconsider the entry ban that it has imposed, and to cease and desist from resorting to such action unless with a justifiable cause.

Further, the three Bars of Malaysia urge both the State and Federal governments to take positive steps to safeguard each citizen's right to travel freely and peacefully within his or her own country.

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<b>Sarawak&#39;s</b> log, timber products see decline in exports – BorneoPost <b>...</b>

Posted: 28 Mar 2014 10:20 AM PDT

KUCHING: The total exports for Sarawak's log and timber products in 2013 registered RM7.05 billion, which is a decline of RM396 million from 2012's total exports of RM7.45 billion.

According to Sarawak Timber Association's (STA) timber trade review released during its Annual General Meeting yesterday, Sarawak's export of log and timber products were mainly plywood which was 56.73 per cent of its total log and timber products, followed by logs (23.98 per cent), sawtimber (8.74 per cent), and other log and timber products.

It also reported that Japan has been Sarawak's main importer of logs and timber products at 38.83 per cent of the total exports, followed by countries in the Asian and Australian regions.

Log production in Sarawak had also seen a decline in 2013, with 8.2 million metric tonnes produced compared to 9.61 million metric tonnes produced in 2012.

STA has also acknowledged that 2013 had been a busy year with numerous issues faced in the timber industries in Sarawak and on a global level.

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Plenty of opportunities for SMEs in <b>Sarawak</b>, says Alliance Bank <b>...</b>

Posted: 27 Mar 2014 10:29 AM PDT

by Sharon Kong, sharonkong@theborneopost.com. Posted on March 28, 2014, Friday

KUCHING: Sarawak remains a strong and vibrant state with plenty of opportunities especially with the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and commercial sector that has seen much activity recently.

Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd (Alliance Bank) executive vice president and head of group business banking Steve Miller shared that they made a big move this year as a bank to start investing a lot more in Sarawak.

"One of the major things we did last year was to invest in a new branch – so we opened a new branch in Bintulu.

"We currently have representation in Sibu, Miri, Bintulu and a few branches in Kuching," he said in an exclusive interview yesterday.

"We are happy with our footprint in terms of major cities and we feel that we have good coverage," he highlighted.

Miller went on to explain one of the main reasons why they felt confident to add a branch and invest in more people here was they were now running Sarawak independently as its own region now, rather than being run jointly with Sabah.

He added the main reason behind that confidence was the fact that they really liked the business scenery here, with the vibrant SME and commercial sector.

"As a bank, we've always felt that the SME and small commercial space is the area that we like to focus on," Miller emphasised.

Going back to Bintulu, he noted that there are some major projects that are happening such as the Bakun Dam, the expansion of the port and so on.

Alliance Bank recognises a whole host of SMEs required to support that growth and those of larger industries.

"It was a branch that we set up that was very focused on business where normally a branch is open for the consumer side.

"This is one of our first branches that we really wanted to drive the small business angle to it," he explained.

With the Bintulu branch having been open for 10 months now, Miller indicated that typically for a branch, they are looking for a breakeven payoff within the first couple of years.

As of the third quarter, Miller concluded that the so far this year, Malaysian SMEs were growing above market average for loan growth and expects to have a strong finish to the year.

Specifically for Sarawak, it is one of Alliance Bank's smaller regions, in terms of not just branch size but also loan size.

Due to the small base of loans and customers, they are always expecting very large growth rates.

"As such, the bank's growth rates here are always going to be substantially higher than others because they need to catch up with the other regions," Miller explained.

With that, Miller is confident that Alliance Bank will most likely have a strong finish this year not just because of the new branches such as Bintulu, but also other areas such as Miri and
Sibu.

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