Hmmm…that’s why James Masing keep on looking any more Dayak lands still available…Hmmm…..
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Sarawak short of NCR land for oil palm estates – Masing
BY JACK WONG, The Star, Wednesday December 15, 2004
KUCHING: There has been a new surge of investors keen to develop native customary rights (NCR) land for oil palm plantations, said state Land Development Minister Datuk Dr James Masing.
He said the Government was unable to entertain all the investors as not enough land banks had been created for plantation projects.
“Now my ministry is faced with too many investors who want to invest” but the ministry has too little NCR land to give, he told the state assembly yesterday.
He said the ministry had approved only 31 of the 159 applications for NCR land development.
Dr Masing said the new concept of development for NCR land, which was launched a decade ago, involved the agreement among private investors, landowners and a government agency.
The investors would provide the capital and expertise for the project while the government agency would be the managing agent and trustee for the NCR landowners.
He said although the government had set a target of 400,000ha of NCR land to be developed into oil palm estates between 1997 and 2010, only 76,600ha had been planted so far.
Dr Masing said most of the NCR land was not surveyed and before a sizeable land bank could be created, the rights to claim such land had to be verified.
The state has about 1.5 million hectares of NCR land.
He said there were other factors that caused the shortfall in meeting the target of planting some 30,000ha a year.
These included convincing the landowners to form land banks and “fighting off” the so-called educated detractors from town who were out to change the thinking of NCR landowners, he added.
Dr Masing sought the help of elected representatives, community chiefs and administrators to support such land development.