7 points agreement reached by State Government

suppadmin | August 29, 2016

1. SUPP welcomes the 7 points agreement reached by our State Government, Federal Government and Petronas that paves the way for more Sarawakians to be directly involved in Sarawak’s oil & gas industries. Congratulations to our chief negotiator, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem and his negotiation team Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohd Morshidi Abdul Ghani for the outcome of the negotiation.

2. At the same time, we thank the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for his continuous commitment of the Sarawak’s well-being and to Datuk Wan Zulkifli Wan Ariffin, CEO of Petronas for his understanding of the Sarawakian’s sensitivity on issues concerning our State’s oil and gas resources.

3. Referring to the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report 1962, paragraph 16(g) regarding Immigration, it says that “the Federation Government should give an assurance that labour for federal projects in the Borneo States will not be recruited from outside the State if adequate local labour is available…” and Petronas is wholly owned by the Federal Government. So, this 7 points agreement reiterates that the Federal Government is still committed to fulfill all that were promised to us when we formed Malaysia in 1963.

4. Appointment of a Sarawakian to be a member of the board of directors of Petronas is a great recognition of Sarawak’s contribution to the national oil & gas industry. Bintulu’s liquid natural gas (LNG) production had helped to project Malaysia as the second largest exporter in the world after Qatar.

5. SUPP is happy to note that the State Government has set up a Committee responsible for the focusing on benefits that can be derived from the State’s petroleum resources, as a back up support to our State Secretary’s duties and scope as a Board Member of Petronas.

6. Commitment by Petronas to recruit 192 Sarawakians for the vacant posts and to give education and training opportunities to Sarawakians is most welcomed. It is to ensure continuous involvement of Sarawakians in its oil & gas industry and achieve the Sarawakians work force target by 2020. A constant monitoring on all oil & gas related companies employment and promotion policies is needed to ensure compliance of the Sarawak Government’s policies.

7. SUPP is also excited with Petronas agreeing to support the construction of the petrochemical and downstream industries after the completion of the Joint Study with the State Government on top of allocating RM 2.1 billion of its oil & gas contracts exclusively to Sarawak-based contractors annually. SUPP hopes that the profits from these will trickle down to our medium and small sized Sarawakian companies connected to the industry.

8. Our Sarawak Government should now also focus on all oil and gas companies operating in Sarawak, Miri and Bintulu in particular on their employment policy, their development and training programs with the view of promoting our Sarawakians to hold senior management posts in these companies.

9 Lastly, SUPP hopes that the Federal Government and Petronas will agree to the Sarawak Government’s request to be a party of the future PSC contracts.