KOTA KINABALU, SEPT 10 – Sabah’s success in recording revenues totaling RM7 billion last year has enabled the state to emerge among the six main contributors to Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2023, said Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
He said figures announced by the Department of Statistics Malaysia last July showed that Sabah had contributed as much as 5.5 percent to the 2023 GDP and put it in line with Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Sarawak and Penang which combined contributed 73 percent to the national economy.
“Last year for example, we recorded an investment of RM11.34 billion which is the seventh highest in Malaysia with 13.3 percent coming from the manufacturing sector,” he said at the Eighth World Engineering, Science and Technology Congress (ESTCON) at the Sabah International Convention Center (SICC) ), today.
Sabah for the first time hosted an event organized by Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) and Petronas which saw the participation of over 1,000 people from 25 countries.
In the meantime, Hajiji also emphasized the importance for Sabah to have quality higher education institutions to provide an excellent qualification platform related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for Sabah students.
This is in line with the state government’s move to set a target of at least 40 percent of school students enrolling in the science stream by next year.
“It is important for the majority of students in Sabah to be in the STEM education group.
“The Sabah Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry has implemented the 2022-2025 Strategic Plan which is a guide for the implementation of various programs and initiatives to strengthen the science, technology, innovation and economic ecosystem in the state,” he said. – Named
