Anwar delivering his mandate to federal and state civil servants in Sabah Tuesday (Feb 28).
KOTA KINABALU: The proposed Labuan-Sabah bridge is not an immediate priority, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
"I have avoided big projects like MRT, the new Kulim airport – and am attacked for that. I am a realist and we spend what we are able to," he told reporters after addressing over 8,000 federal and state civil servants here on Tuesday (Feb 28).
On the possibility of a private financing initiative to build the bridge, he replied that many projects with similar forms of funding had to come back to the government for a bailout.
"It comes back to the government because a government guarantee is required," Anwar said.
This comes after calls to build a bridge between the island federal territory and the state of Sabah, which has also sparked calls for Labuan – which was made a federal territory in 1983 – to be returned to the state.
Anwar said that returning Labuan to Sabah was not an issue as the international offshore financial centre (IOFC) must be developed.
"To me this is not an issue, Labuan must be developed. We will work with Sabah to try to revive its IOFC, which is sluggish now," said Anwar.
He said the main issue now is sluggish development in Labuan and added that the federal government would work with Sabah to revive it.
Responding to questions on Sabah asking for its annual unused development allocations to be put under a trust fund, Anwar said that the federal government had already granted Sabah and Sarawak to give approvals for projects under RM50mil.
"So they have to strengthen their capacity, especially the Works Department." It's entirely up to them to streamline the projects, undertake it and implement them," said Anwar.
He added that the smooth implementation of these projects would partly resolve the issue of unused allocations.
He said the project delays, including for the Pan Borneo Highway, were being monitored closely by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof.
Anwar added that he had insisted that tenders for all projects can be decided by states, adding that Treasury officials could assist if necessary.
Earlier in his speech, with civil servants, he spoke about the need for a clean and efficient government to bring the state and nation back in the eyes of the world.
He said Sabah has the potential to be a strong economic player in the country if leakages and corruption can be stopped, adding that this is not tied to any race or religion.
