Primary Response and Concern of Sabah’s Geopark Potential Economic Effects: Preliminary Study

Sabah, Malaysia is moving steps forward by announcing the gazettement of some areas as geoparks. Part of the areas include the district of Ranau, Kota Marudu and Kota Belud. Some of the areas involved if not all are under a national park program prior to this. This gazettement undoubtedly has the potential to bring economic benefit to the state. It has the potential to increase land value, stimulating economic activities especially in the services sector via tourism activities, enhancing protection for environment and as a mean to control aggressive use of land for development. On the other hand, there are some concerns of stakeholders. Issues such as potential restriction for farmers to do agriculture related activities and relocation of village among others are potential concern among communities in Ranau, Kota Marudu and Kota Belud. In this regard, in order to examine the real concerns of various stakeholders, some series of roundtable discussions and interviews have been undertaken. Based on the preliminary assessment, very small number of individuals have worry about the geopark idea. Majority look at it positively

Sabah-Kalimantan Road Connectivity: The Effect of Common Border on Export

In an effort to explore new economic window, there was a suggestion to further integrate the economies in Borneo island by improving connectivity. Road connectivity with Kalimantan has been proposed as having the potential to further stimulate Sabah’s economic growth. One of the suggestions was to have road from Serudong to Simanggaris from Malaysia’s side of Sabah. In the context of Sabah, several questions arise: how does this benefit the state? Should there be additional efforts to connect Sabah and Kalimantan via road? Should Sabah spend money to improve logistical connectivity with Kalimantan? This chapter discusses briefly the latest proposal in recent years to establish a road connectivity with North Kalimantan, by estimating the effect of common border when having good road on export. Generally, there are limited studies assesses the impact of Sabah-Kalimantan Road Connectivity from Sabah’s perspective. The study uses gravity model. The regression results indicate that common border is positively linked to trade of Malaysia for the period under investigation. Similarly, it is expected that the road connectivity with Kalimantan is projected to increase Malaysia's and Sabah's export. This study shall give an overview and fill in the literature gap by providing an estimation of the common border effect through road connectivity in the context of Sabah-Kalimantan further economic integration

Sabah-Kalimantan Road Connectivity: The Effect of Common Border on Export

In an effort to explore new economic window, there was a suggestion to further integrate the economies in Borneo island by improving connectivity. Road connectivity with Kalimantan has been proposed as having the potential to further stimulate Sabah’s economic growth. One of the suggestions was to have road from Serudong to Simanggaris from Malaysia’s side of Sabah. In the context of Sabah, several questions arise: how does this benefit the state? Should there be additional efforts to connect Sabah and Kalimantan via road? Should Sabah spend money to improve logistical connectivity with Kalimantan? This chapter discusses briefly the latest proposal in recent years to establish a road connectivity with North Kalimantan, by estimating the effect of common border when having good road on export. Generally, there are limited studies assesses the impact of Sabah-Kalimantan Road Connectivity from Sabah’s perspective. The study uses gravity model. The regression results indicate that common border is positively linked to trade of Malaysia for the period under investigation. Similarly, it is expected that the road connectivity with Kalimantan is projected to increase Malaysia's and Sabah's export. This study shall give an overview and fill in the literature gap by providing an estimation of the common border effect through road connectivity in the context of Sabah-Kalimantan further economic integration

Food Security in Sabah: An Overview for Rice Self Sufficient Target Rafiq Idris

Food security in terms of food sufficiency has become a concern and subject of  interest  in  Malaysia.  Malaysia  as  a  whole  and  Sabah  in  particular  is  not  self-sufficient in terms of rice production for its own population. Sabah as a land abundant state  does import rice  from neighbouring countries to  fulfil its domestic demand. This paper  estimates  the  level  of  rice  supply  in  Sabah  before  Malaysian  formation  and present  for  each  single  people  in  the  state.  Several  ratio  such  as  the  production-per capita  (PPC),  consumption  per-capita  (CPC),  import  dependency  ratio  (IDR)  and  self-sufficiency  ratio  (SSR)  are  being  computed  to  estimate  the  self-sufficient  level.  In addition, this paper highlights that Sabah should improve its self-sufficient position

Down Streaming & Industrial Revolution 4.0 In Sabah: An Overview

Since gaining independence in 1963, Sabah economy has expanded gradually and become more diversified. From an economy that is heavily dependent on agriculture, fishery and forestry sector, the economy's GDP is currently also contributed by other important sectors like services, mining, and quarrying, manufacturing, and construction. Despite the expansion, the state is still far away from reaching high-income status. In this regard, this paper argues, to reach high-income status faster, the economy must increase down streaming activities, support and facilitate the adoption of IR4.0 and give attention to creative economic activities. All these, together with other contributing factors such as huge investment inflow, bigger annual federal allocation, conducive policy for business, and investment among others will help in expanding Sabah's economy faster

Propaganda dan disinformasi: Politik persepsi dalam Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-14 (PRU-14) Malaysia

Media memainkan peranan penting membentuk pemikiran pengundi. Media baharu sekali lagi dilihat memainkan peranan penting dalam menetapkan dan membentuk wacana publik pada PRU-14 di Malaysia. Media merupakan sumber maklumat politik yang utama kepada rakyat dalam masyarakat demokratik meskipun berita bukanlah kebenaran mutlak, apatah lagi fakta dan fiksyen sering kali dicampur aduk bagi maksud mencapai agenda tersembunyi. Pada dasarnya, bukan semua orang mempunyai pengalaman sebenar atau langsung dengan kebanyakan isu atau peristiwa yang hangat diperdebatkan sebagai topik yang mempunyai kepentingan publik. Sarjana kewartawanan seperti Tuchman (1978) sering menekankan bagaimana penerbit berita secara sistematik mengkonstruk suatu bentuk realiti yang spesifik dalam proses pemberitaan. Apa yang cuba dimaksudkan oleh beliau “berita merupakan jendela dunia” ialah pengetahuan dan kefahaman seseorang lazimnya bergantung kepada laporan media meskipun berita bukan cerminan kepada realiti dunia sebenar. Hal yang sama juga mendorong saintis-saintis politik tampil dengan hujah sesiapa yang mengusai media akan memenangi pilihan raya. Perubahan mediaskap di Malaysia telah menyaksikan publik tidak lagi dikawal oleh media arus perdana, sebaliknya media sosial yang mulai diperkenalkan mulai lewat 1990-an sebagai suara alternatif kepada rakyat. Perubahan drastik mulai berlaku dengan pengenalan telefon pintar dan media sosial. Isu-isu yang terdahulunya tidak diketahui kini boleh jadi viral dalam sekelip mata. Malangnya, terdapat juga banyak berita palsu yang direka khusus untuk tujuan kempen pilihan raya disebarkan secara berleluasa. Apa yang boleh dilihat pada PRU-14 adalah pelbagai partisan, propaganda, disinformasi dan pragmatisme yang membentuk politik persepsi dalam kalangan rakyat Malaysia

Potential impact of trips-plus provisions on Malaysia’s domestic pharmaceutical industry

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) which is now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans Pacific Partnership (CP-TPP) opens door of opportunities as well as challenges to Malaysia. The agreement has become subject of heated debate in Malaysia as well as other countries due to the reason that it may bring some new elements which are not in the other earlier Free Trade Agreements (FTA) on which Malaysia has signed. One of the key concern is the possibility of including WTO-Plus commitments in the agreement which is TRIPS-Plus element which may affect access to medicine and the local pharmaceutical industry. This study focuses on one issue that is on the potential impact of TRIPS-Plus provisions in the intellectual property chapter on Malaysia’s pharmaceutical domestic industry sales. In assessing the potential impact of the TPPA on Malaysia’s pharmaceutical industry, simulation exercise using Model of Impact Changes in Intellectual Property Rights have been undertaken. The finding of the study indicates that domestic pharmaceutical industry sales may drop if data exclusivity, patent term restoration and patent linkage is being implemented

Economy of Kalimantan: a Snapshot

This chapter aims to give a snapshot of the economies in Kalimantan provinces. Salient factors such as sharing common border with North Kalimantan, Kalimantan as Sabah’s backdoor neighbor with huge market size of over 4 times than Sabah and the relocation of Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta to Kalimantan, have stimulated the interests of many analysts to research on the structure of Kalimantan’s economy in general

Economy of Kalimantan: a Snapshot

This chapter aims to give a snapshot of the economies in Kalimantan provinces. Salient factors such as sharing common border with North Kalimantan, Kalimantan as Sabah’s backdoor neighbor with huge market size of over 4 times than Sabah and the relocation of Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta to Kalimantan, have stimulated the interests of many analysts to research on the structure of Kalimantan’s economy in general