The Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy ("SCORE") is an economic region and
development corridor covering central
Sarawak
Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...
, a
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
n State on the island of
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
. SCORE was launched in 2008. It is one of the five regional development corridors launched throughout Malaysia during the
Abdullah Badawi
Abdullah may refer to:
* Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname
* Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village
* Abdullah (film), ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan
* ''Abdullah: The Final Witness' ...
administration. SCORE is managed by the Regional Corridors Development Authority ("RECODA"), a
state government agency created through an Ordinance of the State Legislative Assembly.
History
SCORE was launched on 11 February 2008 by the 5th
Malaysian Prime Minister
The prime minister of Malaysia ( ms, Perdana Menteri Malaysia; ms, ڤردان منتري مليسيا, label=Jawi alphabet, Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset) is the head of government of Malaysia. The prime minister directs the executive branc ...
, Datuk Seri
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Tun Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi ( Jawi: عبد الله بن احمد بدوي; born 26 November 1939) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia from October 2003 to April 2009. He was also the sixth president of ...
. SCORE was immediately placed under the jurisdiction of Regional Corridors Development Authority (RECODA) where the latter was created under an ordinance passed in the
state assembly back in 2006. RECODA must consist of a chairman, two deputy chairmen, and between five to ten other board members. This agency promotes, manages, and oversees the implementation of development projects inside the corridor.
SCORE covered an area of 70,000 km
2 at the central region of Sarawak, with a coast line of 320 km long; encompassing urban centres such as
Sibu
Sibu (; Foochow Romanized, Hokchew Romanized: ''Sĭ-bŭ'') is a landlocked city in the central region of Sarawak. It is the capital of Sibu District in Sibu Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. The city is located on the island of Borneo and covers ...
,
Bintulu
Bintulu is a coastal town on the island of Borneo in the central region of Sarawak, Malaysia. Bintulu is located 610 kilometres (380 mi) northeast of Kuching, 216 kilometres (134 mi) northeast of Sibu, and 200 kilometres (120 mi) ...
,
Mukah
Mukah ( muːkəh), historically known as Muka is a coastal town which serves as the capital and the administrative center of the Mukah Division since 1 March 2002.
The district also covers an area of with a population about 49,900 in the Muka ...
,
Sarikei
Sarikei is a town, and the capital of Sarikei District (985 square kilometres) in Sarikei Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. It is located on the Rajang River, near where the river empties into the South China Sea. The district population (year 2010 ...
,
Bintulu
Bintulu is a coastal town on the island of Borneo in the central region of Sarawak, Malaysia. Bintulu is located 610 kilometres (380 mi) northeast of Kuching, 216 kilometres (134 mi) northeast of Sibu, and 200 kilometres (120 mi) ...
,
Miri
)
, subdivision_type = Country
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, subdivision_type1 = State
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, subdivision_type2 = Division
, subdivision_name2 ...
,
Lawas
Lawas ( ms, Pekan Lawas) is a small town and the capital of Lawas District, Limbang Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. This district area is 3,811.90 square kilometres, and population (year 2020 census) was 46,200. It is 1,200 km from the state ...
,
Limbang
Limbang is a border town and the capital of Limbang District in the Limbang Division of northern Sarawak, East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. This district area is 3,978.10 square kilometres, and population (year 2020 census) was 56,900. I ...
, and
Kapit
Kapit is a town and the capital of Kapit District in Kapit Division, Sarawak, Malaysia on the south bank of the Rajang River. The district comprises 15,595.6 square kilometres and as of 2020 has a population of 65,800.
Kapit is accessible by b ...
.
Initial plan for SCORE was to construct 12 hydroelectric dams with 7,800 MW of installed capacity, connected to industrial facilities located at the coast of Sarawak, targeting 50 dams with eventual installation capacity of 20,000 MW.
Batang Ai Dam
The Batang Ai Dam is a concrete-face rock-fill dam in Batang Ai National Park in Sarawak, Malaysia. The power station comprises four turbines, totalling the installed capacity to . The station is operated by Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporati ...
was commissioned on 21 August 1985, followed by
Bakun Dam
The Bakun Dam is an embankment dam located in Belaga District, Kapit Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, on the Balui River, a tributary or source of the Rajang River and some sixty kilometres east of Belaga. As part of the project, the second tallest ...
in 2014, and Murum Dam in 2015. In November 2015, chief minister
Adenan Satem
Pehin Sri Tan Sri Haji Adenan bin Haji Satem ( ms, حاج عدنان بن حاج صتيم , label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; 27 January 1944 – 11 January 2017), popularly known as Tok Nan, was a Malaysian politician who served as the ...
halted the
Baram Dam
The Baram Dam, also known as Baram 1 Dam, (Baram Hydro-electric Dam Project) is a proposed gravity dam on the Baram River in Sarawak, Malaysia. The site of the dam is inland from Miri, the second largest city in Sarawak. The dam is part of the Sa ...
project indefinitely due to persistent protests from the local communities. In 2017, Sarawak acquired Bakun Dam from the Malaysian federal government at a cost of RM 2.5 billion. Baleh Dam started construction in 2020 after completion of river diversions works. The dam is expected to commission in 2026.
Companies given the pioneer status, involving in
high tech
High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...
industries, heavy capital investments, or high
research and development
Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...
activities will enjoy 100% exemption on its statutory income for 5 years.
Targets
The initial aim of setting up SCORE was to develop central region of Sarawak, improving the state's economic growth, thus achieving the national objective of
Vision 2020 for becoming a developed state.
The development corridor also targets 1.5 million jobs creation by the year 2030. By 2013, the state government has identified SCORE as one of the means to achieve high income and advanced economy by 2030.
The economic corridor also planned to achieve RM 334 billion (US$110 billion) in total investments, where RM 67 billion (20%) are funded by the government
(a mix of investments from government-linked companies, state, and federal funds)
and the remaining RM 267 billion (80%) are funded by private sector.
Other targets include: increase the size of the economy by a factor of five, increase the number of jobs by a factor of 2.5, and doubling the population to 4.6 million.
It focus on ten priority industries in agriculture, mining, and manufacturing sectors such as aquaculture, livestock rearing, timber, palm oil, petroleum, aluminum, and steel and glass industries.
Total investments into these industries are projected to reach RM 200 billion where oil-based industries amount to RM 60 billion, aluminium industry accounted for RM 23 billion, palm oil industry at RM 17 billion, and timber-based industry RM 11 billion.
Malaysia failed to achieve developed nation status in the year 2020.
Agencies Under RECODA
![SCORE-Map-002](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/SCORE-Map-002.png)
]
In order to expand the SCORE initiative into rural Sarawak, three agencies under RECODA were established. This initiative expanded the SCORE development area from initial 70,000 km
2 to 100,000 km
2, which is about two-thirds of Sarawak area.
Upper Rajang Development Agency (URDA)
URDA was established on July 12, 2017.
Its inaugural chairman was deputy chief minister
James Jemut Masing
Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr. James Jemut Masing (5 March 1949 – 31 October 2021) was a Malaysian politician who served as the Deputy Chief Minister, State Minister of Infrastructure and Ports Development of Sarawak under Chief Ministers Adenan S ...
.
This agency covers areas involving
Kapit
Kapit is a town and the capital of Kapit District in Kapit Division, Sarawak, Malaysia on the south bank of the Rajang River. The district comprises 15,595.6 square kilometres and as of 2020 has a population of 65,800.
Kapit is accessible by b ...
,
Kanowit
Kanowit (Malay: ''Pekan Kanowit'') is a town and the capital of a district of the same name, located within the Sibu Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, comprising 2,253.5 square kilometres. As of 2010, Kanowit's population is 28,985. It is built on ...
,
Song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
,
Belaga, and
Bukit Mabong, totalling 41,186 km
2 in area.
Major development projects for URDA are the construction and management of
Bakun Dam
The Bakun Dam is an embankment dam located in Belaga District, Kapit Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, on the Balui River, a tributary or source of the Rajang River and some sixty kilometres east of Belaga. As part of the project, the second tallest ...
,
Murum Dam
The Murum Dam is a gravity dam on the Murum River in Sarawak, Malaysia. Construction began in 2008. The dam's reservoir began to fill in July 2013 and the first generator was commissioned in December 2014. The fourth and final turbine began oper ...
, and Baleh Dam and building access roads to the dams and between settlement areas.
As of December 2020, there were four projects under planning and 28 projects under implementation. One of such projects is the construction of 73 km road network from Kapit to Baleh Dam. This enables remote villages from around Baleh area road access to Kapit town.
Highland Development Agency (HDA)
HDA was established on July 12, 2017.
This agency covers an area of 18,462 km
2 involving 75,000 people across 244 villages and longhouses in
Bario
Bario is a community of 13 to 16 villages located on the Kelabit Highlands in Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, lying at an altitude of 1000 m (3280 ft) above sea level. It is located close to the Sarawak-Kalimantan border, 178 k ...
,
Mulu Mulu may refer to:
* Mulu (band), a 1990s British trip hop group
* Mulu (company), a social sharing website
* Mulu (state constituency), represented in the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly
* Mulu, Ethiopia
* Mulu, Kermanshah, Iran
* Mulu, Maragh ...
, and
Long Lama.
Deputy chief minister
Douglas Uggah Embas
Douglas Uggah Embas (born 28 July 1956) is a Malaysian politician who has served as Deputy Premier of Sarawak since 2016. He has been Member of the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Bukit Saban since 2016, having previously been Me ...
served as the inaugural chairman of the HDA.
As of December 2020, 10 projects were under planning and 19 projects were under implementation under HDA.
Among the projects implemented were Long Lama Rural Growth Centre and Integrated Highland Agriculture Station (IHAS). IHAS aims to become an agricultural products collection, chilling, and packaging facility for the
Baram region.
IHAS covers an area of 634 hectares including Long Beruang,
Long Banga
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...
, and
Long Peluan
Long Peluan is a settlement in the Marudi division of Sarawak, Malaysia. It lies approximately east-north-east of the state capital Kuching.
The village is located in the Ulu Baram area in the interior of Sarawak. The nearby village of Long Ban ...
areas. Facilities included in IHAS are offices, an internet centre, a multipurpose hall, a production centre, schools, hostels, a training centre, and road networks connecting to surrounding farmlands.
Northern Region Development Agency (NRDA)
NRDA was established on March 15, 2018.
Deputy chief minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan was the inaugural NRDA Chairman.
It encompasses
Limbang
Limbang is a border town and the capital of Limbang District in the Limbang Division of northern Sarawak, East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. This district area is 3,978.10 square kilometres, and population (year 2020 census) was 56,900. I ...
and
Lawas
Lawas ( ms, Pekan Lawas) is a small town and the capital of Lawas District, Limbang Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. This district area is 3,811.90 square kilometres, and population (year 2020 census) was 46,200. It is 1,200 km from the state ...
, covering an area of 7,790 km
2.
NRDA is involved in roads constructions, building water supply, and a new airport in Lawas. As of December 2020, 12 projects were under planning and 64 projects were under implementation. One of such projects is Northen Coastal Highway that aims to connect Miri, Limbang, and Lawas to neighbouring state of
Sabah
Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...
through various custom checkpoints in
Brunei
Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...
, Limbang, and Lawas; by constructing a dual carriageway.
Growth nodes
Samalaju
Samalaju Industrial Park began construction in 2009.
In January 2011, Tokuyama's polycrystalline silicon factory was opened in the industrial park.
As of 2014, 15 out of 19 projects in SCORE are located in Samalaju, with total cumulative
foreign direct investment
A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct co ...
(FDI) of MYR 27 billion.
Companies such as Press Metal Bhd, OM Materials (Sarawak), Pertama Ferroalloys, Sakura Ferroalloys, OCI Malaysia (previously
Tokuyama Malaysia), and Iwatani-SIG
Industrial Gas
Industrial gases are the gaseous materials that are manufactured for use in industry. The principal gases provided are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, hydrogen, helium and acetylene, although many other gases and mixtures are also avail ...
es Sdn Bhd, and Elkem Carbon Malaysia are operational in Samalaju since 2014.
Other development projects near the industrial park are Samalaju Eco Park Township and Samalaju port. Residential properties, shoplots, transportation hub, and light industrial facilities are located inside the Eco Park Township. Samalaju port handled 4 million tonnes of cargo annually in 2015.
As of 2018, there was no data of socioeconomic impact on the local community, such as employment and wages, and involvement of local companies in the industrial park.
Mukah
Mukah aims to become a smart city focusing in education and information technology.
Amongst projects that were planned in 2013 were: new
Mukah Airport
Mukah Airport is an airport in Mukah, a town in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia.
History Old STOLport
The old STOLport (Short Take-Off and Landing airport) was opened in 1960s and could only handle 67 passengers at one time. The STOLport was eq ...
,
Universiti Teknologi MARA
The MARA Technological University (Malay: ''Universiti Teknologi MARA''; Jawi: اونيۏرسيتي تيكنولوڬي مارا; abbr. UiTM) is a public university based primarily in Shah Alam, Selangor. It was established to help rural Mal ...
(UiTM) campus, and Mukah Science Park. Mukah Coal Fired power plant started operation in April 2009. This was followed by Press Metal Sarawak opening its first aluminium smelting plant in August 2009.
In April 2011, Mukah new administrative centre was built that houses the head office of RECODA
and Dalat & Mukah District Council. Since 2014, Matadeng Industrial park, located at 30 km from the Mukah town, was planned. New Mukah Airport started construction in 2017 and commenced operation in June 2021. Construction of new UiTM Mukah Campus started in 2012 and completed in 2015, capable of housing 2,000 students. Three faculties are based in this new campus, namely: faculty of business management, faculty of plantation and agrotechnology, and faculty of Applied Science. Mukah Rinwood 10 MW biomass power plant also started construction in 2015. It uses oil palm waste such as empty fruit branch, palm kernel shell, and mesocarp fibre to generate electricity.
Balingian
Balingian also known as Kuala Balingian is a town in Sarawak, Malaysia. It lies approximately east-north-east of the state capital Kuching.
Etymology
Baligian got its name from a river crossing the town. The river was once used by the local ...
coal fired power plant began construction in 2015.
The power plant started operating in May 2019.
Tanjung Manis
Tanjung Manis aims to become a palm oil integrated centre and
halal
''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with ''haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification kno ...
food hub.
Tanjung Manis Halal Hub was launched in February 2009.
Other projects planned includes building an integrated port and deep sea fishing port. In 2013, Sea Party International Co Ltd from Taiwan invested in this area, involving in tilapia, marine fish, and shrimp farming projects.
Baram
The Baram region encompasses Miri, Marudi, Telang Usan, and Beluru. It aims develop highland agriculture, livestock rearing, and ecotourism. Construction of IHAS started in 2015. Access roads to
Baram Dam
The Baram Dam, also known as Baram 1 Dam, (Baram Hydro-electric Dam Project) is a proposed gravity dam on the Baram River in Sarawak, Malaysia. The site of the dam is inland from Miri, the second largest city in Sarawak. The dam is part of the Sa ...
and
Murum Dam
The Murum Dam is a gravity dam on the Murum River in Sarawak, Malaysia. Construction began in 2008. The dam's reservoir began to fill in July 2013 and the first generator was commissioned in December 2014. The fourth and final turbine began oper ...
were also planned.
Tunoh
Similar to Baram, Tunoh also aims to become an agriculture and eco-tourism centre. Access road to Baleh Dam was planned in 2013.
Access road to Tunoh and a new township at Bukit Mabong was planned in 2016.
Results
As of 2014, 19 projects with more than
RM 32 billion in FDI has been approved cumulatively. Of these projects, 15 of them were located in Samalaju, and the remaining four were located in Tanjung Manis, Mukah and Kidurong.
In the year 2014 alone, SCORE accounted for 90% of Sarawak's total
foreign direct investment
A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct co ...
(FDI), amounting RM 9.6 billion, where 87.2% the investments were foreign.
As of 2016, 16 projects in basic metal products industry, two projects in chemical industry, two projects under food manufacturing, and one project under petrochemical industry was approved.
As of 2018, a total of nine projects were operational in the economic corridor, where seven of them were located in Samalaju, one each at Mukah and Tanjung Manis. SCORE recorded RM 79.97 billion in total investments, where RM 33.64 billion (42%) came from private investments. As of 2020, SCORE created 6,654
to 18,000 job opportunities. A total of 68% of the jobs were filled by locals.
Export values worth RM 9.4 billion were generated in the same year.
As of October 2021, cumulative private and public investments in SCORE stood at RM 71.1 billion, where public sector contributes 58.2% and foreign investments stood at 36.7%.
Analysis
According to a report published in 2011, although SCORE helps to diversify Sarawak energy sources away from fossil fuels, it met several technical challenges such as a lack of proper highways to carry raw materials into rural areas, lack of proper electricity networks to carry power to consumers, difficulties in river diversion, tunneling, channeling, transportation of machines and turbines to the dam construction sites, and lack of highly trained engineers and construction workers to build the spillways, powerhouses, transformers, turbines, and dam face. The turbid river waters are filled with silt, sediments, logs, and rocks due to logging, erosions, and unsustainable agricultural practices. Such low quality river waters can make dam projects more complicated and shorten the lifetime of the dam usage to 30 to 40 years. These problems could make the electricity generated from SCORE unaffordable because of
cost overrun
A cost overrun, also known as a cost increase or budget overrun, involves unexpected incurred costs. When these costs are in excess of budgeted amounts due to a value engineering underestimation of the actual cost during budgeting, they are known ...
s and delays in financing the projects. An example is the cost overruns of
Bakun Dam
The Bakun Dam is an embankment dam located in Belaga District, Kapit Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, on the Balui River, a tributary or source of the Rajang River and some sixty kilometres east of Belaga. As part of the project, the second tallest ...
six times higher than the original price of RM 2.5 billion due to delays, rising interest rates, strikes and problems with excavations. Initially, construction companies have to underestimate their risks in order to have an edge in the tender bidding process. When problems emerged during constructions, additional payment have to be made in order to keep the project afloat, thus making the electricity generated by dams in Sarawak to be two to three times higher than expected.
Building dams in the middle of the forests can be construed as high risk project as it deals with many problems such as logistical issues, indigenous communities and their lands, contractors and corruptions. The caused the investors to be risk averse, thus leading to delay in financing. The electrical energy generated from the dams are mainly for industry players, instead for local population. One respondent from the interview predicted that "the amount of jobs created for the local population is practically zero". Besides, the policy of SCORE to attract "energy inefficient" metal smelters is a waste of electricity. The construction of dams also causes environmental damage due to logging, changes in water biochemical profile, emission of methane gas from rotten vegetation, and submersion of tropical rainforests.
A study done in March 2015 at
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
showed that distributed energy plants such as solar and biomass can meet the future energy demand of the state when compared to dam construction.
See also
*
Baram Dam
The Baram Dam, also known as Baram 1 Dam, (Baram Hydro-electric Dam Project) is a proposed gravity dam on the Baram River in Sarawak, Malaysia. The site of the dam is inland from Miri, the second largest city in Sarawak. The dam is part of the Sa ...
, a dam that is part of SCORE
*
Malaysian National Projects Malaysian National Projects are major national and giant projects which are important in the development of Malaysia.
This is a list of national projects from Malaysian independence in 1957 to the present.
1957–1963
*Stadium Merdeka
*Klang Ga ...
*
Ninth Malaysia Plan
The Ninth Malaysian Plan ( ms, Rancangan Malaysia ke-9), abbreviated as '9MP', is a comprehensive blueprint prepared by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of the Prime Minister's Department and the Finance Ministry of Malaysia with approval by the ...
*
Iskandar Malaysia
Iskandar Malaysia, formerly known as Iskandar Development Region (IDR; ms, Wilayah Pembangunan Iskandar) and South Johor Economic Region (SJER), is the main southern development corridor in Johor, Malaysia. It was established on 8 November 200 ...
*
Northern Corridor Economic Region
The Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER; ms, Koridor Utara) is a development plan encompassing the four northwestern states of Malaysia, namely Perlis, Penang, Kedah and Perak. It was launched in 2007 by the federal government with an aim to ...
*
East Coast Economic Region
East Coast Economic Region (ECER) ( ms, Wilayah Ekonomi Pantai Timur; Jawi: ولايه ايكونومي ڤنتاي تيمور) is an economic development region based on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, which covers the states of Kelantan, T ...
*
Sabah Development Corridor
The Sabah Development Corridor or SDC (Malay: Koridor Pembangunan Sabah or Koridor Sabah) is a new development corridor in Sabah, Malaysia. The SDC was launched on 29 January 2008 by the Malaysian fifth Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
The ...
*
Mukah
Mukah ( muːkəh), historically known as Muka is a coastal town which serves as the capital and the administrative center of the Mukah Division since 1 March 2002.
The district also covers an area of with a population about 49,900 in the Muka ...
References
External links
Sarawak Corridor of Renewable EnergyRegional Corridor Development Authority (RECODA)
{{coord missing, Malaysia
Development Corridors in Malaysia
Renewable energy in Malaysia
Prime Minister's Department (Malaysia)