KUCHING: Sarawak will introduce a new state ownership policy as part of measures to improve governance of state‑owned enterprises, says Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg.
The Premier said he will explain the policy in detail during the Sarawak Legislative Assembly’s budget session next month.
“The state ownership policy involves consolidating state assets and estimating their value,” he said on Thursday (Oct 2).
“Then we have to safeguard ownership of the assets through prudent management,” added Abang Johari.
He spoke after witnessing the exchange of an agreement between the Sarawak government, the federal Finance Ministry and the World Bank.
Abang Johari said some assets are under government‑linked companies and others under statutory bodies.
“These assets have to be protected. What is important is how we manage state assets, it is a question of governance” he added.
Abang Johari said the state government is implementing results‑based budgeting as a key component of Sarawak’s public financial management transformation programme.
He said the approach involves monitoring the results of budget allocations to ensure timely delivery of projects.
“We have to make sure there is a result at the end of the day after allocating funds to certain projects. If there are problems during implementation, you have to alert us so we can carry out rectification,” he added.
In his speech earlier, Abang Johari said the exchange of the reimbursable advisory services agreement marks the start of a three‑year partnership with the World Bank.
Through the collaboration, he said, the World Bank will provide expertise to help Sarawak strengthen SOE governance and transform its public financial management systems.
“Reforming our institutions and governance is crucial to realising Sarawak’s vision of becoming a fully developed state by 2030,” he said.
Besides introducing the state ownership policy, Abang Johari said Sarawak plans to establish high standards of corporate governance across SOEs in areas such as board composition, financial transparency, risk management and integrity frameworks.
In addition, he said Sarawak will develop a centrally managed performance measurement framework to track SOE performance against strategic, financial and socioeconomic goals.
“Through our partnership with the World Bank, Sarawak has the opportunity to stand as a model of how corporate governance reforms, sound public financial management and effective SOE transformation can drive sustainable and equitable growth,” he added.
