productive

Musa wants higher performance

http://insightsabah.gov.my/article/read/199

Seeking higher performance: No one can come the raw prawn with Musa Aman (left). With him is Yahya, Musbah Jamli (Yahya's assistant) and Masood Salleh, general manager of Ko-Nelayan.

Sabah’s chief minister is happy with agriculture ministry’s achievement

Sabah’s ministry of agriculture and food industry has impressed chief minister Musa Aman with its sterling performance but Mr Musa says there is still room for improvement. “There’s still a lot to do,” he told about 1,000 officers at Wisma Pertanian in Kota Kinabalu during his first visit to the ministry this year on February 4.

The chief minister noted that the ministry under Yahya Hussin has used 86% of the 222m ringgit ($65.3m) of state funds for 180 agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries programmes while 72% of the 184m ringgit of federal money was spent on 69 of these.

“If possible, use all the federal funds before the 9th Malaysia plan ends (this year) because we must complete as many projects as possible,” Mr Musa said.

He said he chose to visit the agriculture ministry first because it was a very important ministry that was “close to my heart”.

Indeed, agriculture is the backbone of the Sabah economy. The ministry has 6,000 staff in four departments and four agencies which include the rural development corporation, the rubber industry board, fishermen cooperative and the Sabah fish marketing company.

The chief minister was briefed on the challenges and staff shortage that had hampered some of the ministry’s programmes. Mr Musa said vacancies, particularly technical ones, would be filled.

Mr Yahya, who is a deputy chief minister, said his ministry was at the forefront of innovation to tap higher economic returns from agriculture. – Insight Sabah

– Reported by Jenney Juanis