Sarawak withdraws rep from Malaysia Tourism Board

A filepic of an aerial view of the city of Kuching.

KUCHING: The Sarawak state government has withdrawn its representative in the Malaysia Tourism Board with immediate effect.

The Chief Minister's Office, in a statement on Monday, said the state government deemed its representation in Tourism Malaysia as unnecessary as this would be duplicating the role and functions of the Sarawak Tourism Promotion Board.

No other reason was stated for the withdrawal.

The state government's moves comes after Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz chided Sarawak Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah over the latter's remarks on the implementation of the tourism tax.

Abdul Karim had urged Putrajaya to defer the July 1 implementation of the tourism tax for Sabah and Sarawak. He added that the Federal Government must respect the Malaysia Agreement 1963 as tourism was only federalised recently.

At an event here on Sunday, the Sarawak minister said the state cabinet would discuss the implementation of the tourism tax in detail.

Nazri had labelled Abdul Karim as inexperienced over his comments, while advising him not to behave "like a gangster".