Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg (centre) witnessing the agreement exchange between Sarawak financial secretary Datuk Seri Wan Lizozman Wan Omar (left) and World Bank division director for the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei Zafer Mustafaoglu. ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE / The Star
KUCHING: Sarawak will introduce a new state ownership policy as part of measures to improve the governance of state-owned enterprises (SOE) in partnership with the World Bank, says Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg.
The Premier said he would explain the policy in detail during the Sarawak Legislative Assembly’s upcoming budget session next month.
“The state ownership policy involves consolidating state assets and estimating their value.
“We have to safeguard the ownership of the assets through prudent management,” he told reporters after witnessing the exchange of an agreement for reimbursable advisory services between the Sarawak government, Federal Finance Ministry and World Bank here yesterday.
Abang Johari said some of the assets were 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’s a question of governance.”
Abang Johari said the state government was also implementing results-based budgeting (RBB) as a key component of the Sarawak public financial management transformation programme.
He said RBB involved monitoring the results of budget allocations to ensure timely delivery of projects.
“If there are problems during implementation, you have to alert us so that we can rectify.”
In his speech, Abang Johari said the agreement marked the start of a three-year partnership with the World Bank, which will provide critical expertise to help Sarawak strengthen the governance of SOE and transform its public financial management systems.
