Hakim Hayat
Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Ali bin Apong said the production growth in the agriculture, livestock, agrifood and fisheries sectors has been main contributors to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the non-oil and gas sector in the last few years.
In his budget speech for the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism (MPRT) on the fourth day of the 18th Legislative Council (LegCo) meeting yesterday, he praised the ministry’s officials and entrepreneurs in the primary resources for their hard work.
He also underscored the MPRT’s commitment in identifying and formulating strategies and new initiatives to ensure that production in the agriculture, fisheries and also forestry as well as tourism sectors will increase year-by-year and contribute significantly towards GDP growth.
“This includes the ramping up of efforts in attracting new entrepreneurs in agriculture and fisheries, including the involvement of government-linked companies (GLCs) and foreign direct investment (FDI); encouraging entrepreneurs to be continuously committed, progressive and spirited to develop their businesses and farming activities; utilising technology and modern techniques and practising good governance to ensure production increases year by year and directly contributing significant results to GDP growth,”
he said.
MPRT tabled a budget of BND 96.13 million unanimously approved by LegCo members yesterday.
Among the highlights of his speech included the MPRT’s bid in implementing several projects through public private partnership (PPP) in the fisheries, forestry and tourism sectors.
Sharing some statistics, the minister said the primary resources industry’s gross output performance recorded a positive increase in 2021 compared to the previous year, with a 25.8-per-cent increase from BND651 million to BND819 million.
He also mentioned the positive performance of the agriculture and fisheries industry production self-sufficiency in 2021. He said the country on average achieved nearly 100 per cent self-sufficiency in the supply of broilers and chicken eggs and around 85 per cent self-sufficiency in the supply of buffaloes and cows.
For the crop sector, he said the country has achieved around 66.5 per cent self-sufficiency for tropical vegetable supplies and 41.9 per cent in tropical fruits.
In the rice production sector, the country has achieved on average 8.71 per cent self-sufficiency and for the fisheries sector the country achieved 87 per cent of self-sufficiency.
