KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government has received RM20 million from the Sawit Kinabalu Group as dividend payments and contributions for the Covid-19 Fund.
Of the amount, RM10 million was for interim dividends payment for the first and second quarters of 2021 while the remainder was for the Covid-19 Fund.
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, who is also Sawit Kinabalu Group chairman, received the payment from its managing director Bacho Jansie at the State Administrative Centre here on Thursday.
Hajiji who is also state Finance Minister, said he was pleased with the achievement of Sawit Kinabalu, which despite the Covid-19 pandemic, still continued to perform well and was able to pay dividends as well as help the Covid-19 Fund.
"This is the aspiration of the state government to the government-linked companies (GLCs), that they should be efficient and profitable.
"The government always supports the palm oil industry because it is one of the three main economic sectors alongside industry and tourism under the Sabah Maju Jaya Roadmap (SMJ). The government regards the state's economic development seriously in order to bring prosperity to all the people," he said.
To date, Sawit Kinabalu Group, a premier investment arm of the state government in the oil palm industry, has paid a dividend of RM1.2 billion to the Sabah government since it was incorporated 25 years ago.
Meanwhile, Bacho said although the whole country has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and natural disasters such as floods in several states, the palm oil industry still contributed positively to economic growth.
He said the price of crude palm oil has surged to a record high of RM4,700 per tonne last May following the price hike of soybean oil.
"The encouraging activities in the farms and factories which focused on maximizing production have contributed to the high yields performance for now and in the future.
"Sawit Kinabalu's strength lies in its plantations and factories workforce. During the lockdown, the company spent more than RM6 million to pay incentives for its workers," he said.