NCER- RM177 Billion Investment ready to flow

ALOR STAR, July 30 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today launched the masterplan for the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), a development initiative that is expected to draw investments worth RM177 billion from 2007 to 2025.The prime minister said that of the total sum, one-third was expected to be spent by the government, with the balance to be through Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) and private sector investment."The government will start the ball rolling to provide the best possible socio-economic environment and this will be followed by the private sector and commercial investments later on," he said when launching the masterplan at the Muda Agricultural Development Authority (Mada) headquarters here.The initiative is expected to spur growth and boost income levels in the NCER, home to 4.29 million people, within 20 years.Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP), the NCER development programme has been identified as one of the areas to generate the country's economic growth.Present were Abdullah's wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali, Penang Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid and Perlis Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim. The NCER covers Kedah, Perlis, Penang and northern Perak.The launch was also attended by Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Effendi Norwawi.Abdullah, who is also Finance Minister, said that in the initial phase, the government would provide RM5 billion on top of existing allocations for NCER programmes which had been identified."The government plans to invest the money following a review of 9MP programmes and increase the allocations after the 9MP mid-term review," he said.Abdullah said he and the leaders of the four states would chair a coordination and implementation body comprising federal and state government officials being set up to oversee NCER implementation.The northern corridor concept, he said, was formulated on the premise that development efforts could be carried out much faster and in a more orderly manner by leveraging on the potential of the states concerned.Abdullah said initiatives meant to stimulate socio-economic development for the well-being of the people would be carried out in the NCER.He said the thrust of development efforts there would be on trade and market trends to push the northern region forward in the globalisation age.To this end, he said, there was a need for a mind shift with regard to the potential of the country's northern states and districts.Abdullah said the NCER was different from the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) in Johor as the former covers a wider area with differences in the demographic make-up."The challenges and opportunites are different too. For example, the latest figures show that the poverty rate in Kedah and Perlis is much higher than the the country's average," he said.Abdullah said as the household income in the NCER was also lower than the nation's average, the government aimed to introduce socio-economic transformation for the people in the north, unlike IDR's urban-centred growth targets.But the philosophy behind both development initiatives is similar -- to add value to rural sectors, urban industries and human capital, he said."The value-add culture should be made part of people's lives as it is the key to Northern Corridor's success," he said, adding that it was also important to narrow the income gap between rural and urban areas.Abdullah said efforts would be made to transform rural economy to make it more modern, sustainable and profitable, such as the move to promote "new agriculture".Opportunies should be created in the rural economy of the north to allow investors to introduce modern techniques as well as consumer and market knowledge among entrepreneurs in rural areas, he said.The prime minister said special programmes would be implemented to develop commercial-scale projects by the private sector.One of them, he said, was to encourage the amalgamation of land to allow the utilisation of modern methods for crop cultivation and harvesting for commercial purposes.Saying that the management aspects would come under the private sector, Abdullah stressed that this would not jeopardise land ownership as land owners would be able to enjoy higher income from big-scale and modern agricultural projects.And in the process, land owners and farmers would also be able learn new techniques, including by becoming contract farmers, he said.He said commercial agricultural projects would promote downstream activities and agro-based small and medium industries.Abdullah said all these would be backed by programmes to enhance innovation and skills in the agricultural sector through the establishment of research and development centres and agriculture faculties with the cooperation of the private sector.The prime minister expressed the hope that such initiatives would produce a new generation of skilled and business-savvy farmers in the northern belt on whose shoulders lied the future of rural economy."I want the country to mould a new generation of rural dwellers who won't see the necessity to look for jobs in major towns; people who are able to toil the land using modern technology. This is something that will change our rural landscape," he said.