Author: OBG Admin

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Sarawak has plenty of potential to serve as a regional power supplier

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Given Sarawak’s budding power generation potential and the appeal of the cost competitiveness and sustainability of hydropower, the state government is in the midst of securing power exchange agreements with neighbouring territories. It is also looking to emulate the example of Norway, which has positioned itself as Scandinavia’s leading hydropower generator and utilises its production base to accrue fiscal revenues from selling electricity to nearby Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands. An off-take agreement to supply the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, which Sarawak shares a border with to the south, was signed in 2012. State authorities are also in talks with Sabah and

Stuart Tait-Regional Head of Commercial Banking-Asia Pacific

Unexplored areas in Sarawak may hold vast potential for energy

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  The case could be made that no other state in Malaysia is of as much current and historical importance to the country’s on and offshore hydrocarbons industry than Sarawak. The Sarawak basin is one of Malaysia’s richest geological areas for hydrocarbons development, particularly natural gas. It was here that Malaysia’s first oil well, the Canada Hill Well, an onshore field near Miri, was discovered and drilled in 1910. A half-century later, in 1960, Sarawak’s waters became the host for the country’s first ever mobile drilling rig that led to the discovery the offshore Baram field. According to the Malaysia Energy Information Hub, the state

Mohammed El Etreby-Chairman-Banque Misr

Sarawak’s palm oil producers to benefit from a move into downstream

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Supplying more than one-third of the world’s total crude palm oil (CPO), according to US Energy Information Administration figures, Malaysia has traditionally used only a small fraction of what is produced as a feedstock for biodiesel, opting instead to export most of its output. Slowly and surely, however, local biofuel production has been on the upswing, with domestic production growing from an estimated 1000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2011 to 6000 bpd in 2013. This trend looks set to continue and gather further momentum as national guidelines formulated under the 2006 National Biofuel Policy, which stipulates minimum blending requirements for biofuel within retailed

Sheikh Ahmad Duaij Jaber Al Sabah-Chairman-Commercial Bank of Kuwait

Sarawak’s government aims for solutions to meet local demand for power

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  At present, there are no formal mechanisms within Sarawak allowing for small industries and homes that produce renewable power for their own consumption to sell any surplus power generated to the state’s main grid. Some critics believe this counters the government’s principles of actively encouraging the adoption of green energy solutions wherever possible. SWEET DEAL: In Peninsular Malaysia, national utility Tenaga Nasional has been running a feed-in-tariff (FIT) programme since 2011, and in 2014 Sabah and the federal territory of Labuan adopted the same regime, leaving Sarawak as the only Malaysian territory without a FIT scheme. Under the programme, Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Foreign direct investment gains momentum in Sarawak’s SCORE

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  The Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) was largely responsible for Sarawak’s receiving the most foreign direct investment (FDI) of any of Malaysia’s states over the first nine months of 2014, valued at RM8.7bn ($2.6bn). In all, the corridor has generated a cumulative investment value of RM32.9bn ($10bn) between its launch in 2008 and the end of 2014, with RM27bn ($8.2bn) being directed towards energy-intensive plants in the Samalaju Industrial Park (SIP). SETTING THE TONE: One of the pioneer investors into the corridor was Malaysian company Press Metal, which established South-east Asia’s first aluminium smelting plant with capacity of 120,000 tonnes per annum (tpa),

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

SMEs in Sarawak set to receive greater support

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sarawak are on course for strong growth, as more tap into spinoff projects generated by increased investment in the state’s special economic zone, and federal and state governments urge SMEs to set up shop in Sarawak. While access to credit has been an obstacle to growth, some banks are now offering generous incentives and guaranteed, unsecured loans in an effort to boost the number of SMEs operating in the state. SMEs have long formed the backbone of Sarawak’s economy, representing around 98% of all registered businesses in the state, according to the Ministry of Industrial Development. In a

Daniel Asare-Kyei-CEO-Esoko; Curtis Vanderpuije-CEO-ExpressPay; and Daniel Marfo-General Manager-Zipline Ghana

Better than the rest: The state is building a solid foundation for growth in Islamic finance and insurance

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

The Malaysian government has worked to position itself as the world’s Islamic financial centre, with Sarawak now home to a variety of Islamic financial institutions as well. The federal authorities have largely achieved this through several major steps. In 2006 the government both established the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre and liberalised regulations on foreign issuance of Islamic bonds. Then, in 2013, it instituted the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 (IFSA), focused on regulation and oversight of Islamic financial institutions, and introduced the issuance of

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Sarawak’s renewable energy corridor to boost investment significantly

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  At the heart of Malaysia’s economic transformation ambitions to rise to a high-income economy by 2020 is the initiative to extract greater value from its natural resources by shifting away from a primarily raw or minimally processed resource exporting country to a high-tech, high-value-added industrial base. While much of new industries such as IT hubs and high-end electronics manufacturing are being developed around the country’s economic and political epicentre in Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak has focused on promoting its natural resources to attract global investors. In exploiting the state’s numerous rivers with a series of large hydroelectric power plants, Sarawak has managed to create a

Éric N’guessan-Managing Partner-EY Côte d’Ivoire

Sarawak’s small and medium-sized businesses thrive with increased financial support

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

  Often standing in the shadows of mega-investments made by large international oil corporations, agriculture plantations and, more recently, mining companies, it is the multitude of Sarawak’s smaller, less heralded companies that account for the vast majority of business taking place in the state. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accounted for nearly 99% of total registered companies in the country in 2013, and contributed approximately 33% of Malaysia’s GDP in 2014. In spite of the growth of the sector and the mushrooming number of SMEs operating throughout Malaysia, the government continues to step up efforts to boost the efficiency of SMEs so as to increase

Nhon Luc Ly-CEO-AIA Myanmar; Son Nguyen-Country President-Chubb Life Insurance Myanmar; Daw Zarchi Tin-CEO

Meeting demand: Opportunities are available for investors during the expansion of the electricity sector

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

With anticipated economic growth of 4.4% in 2014, annual population growth of 2.3%, new and expanding residential and industrial cities, and an improving standard of living, Saudi Arabia faces rising demand for power and there is constant pressure on generation, transmission and distribution systems to keep pace. This is creating attractive opportunities for both domestic and international companies. 2020 VISION: With a target of reaching generation capacity of 120 GW by 2020 from a total of 55 GW in 2013, Saudi Arabia will need to