5,000-hectare land approval boosts SALCRA’s transformation

KUCHING: The approval in-principle for the alienation of 5,000 hectares of land is significant for the Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (SALCRA) to develop new revenue-generating activities and ensure long-term financial sustainability.

SALCRA chairman Datuk Seri Stephen Rundi Utom thanked Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg for the land approval, noting that the organisation is now undergoing a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) transformation.

“SALCRA must become stronger, more efficient and increasingly financially self-reliant. it must broaden it revenue base and improve its profitability.

“It must commercialise its knowledge and venture intelligently into businesses connected to its core competencies,” he said in his speech at the SALCRA Golden Jubilee dinner last night (Oct 12).

He added that these are opportunities in green and renewable energy, including in bio-fertilisers and organic fertilisers.

“There are opportunities in food-security-related activities. And there are opportunities throughout the palm oil value chain,” Rundi said.

Rundi added that after 50 years of managing native land development, plantations, and communities, SALCRA has gained vast experience and knowledge, which is considered a valuable asset.

“That expertise should be developed into consultancy, advisory, management and technical services that can generate new revenue.

“We must also acknowledge that SALCRA’s management has already begun this transformation,” he said.

He said there is immense value within SALCRA’s existing operations that has yet to be fully unlocked.

He pointed to progress already being made, setting an example where what was once treated simply as mill waste has generated more than RM30 million over the past five years.

“If waste alone can generate that value, imagine what disciplined innovation across the entire organisation can achieve.

“That must be SALCRA’s mindset going forward. We must create new value from what we already have, strengthen the way we operate and govern, and continuously prepare the organisation for the opportunities ahead,” Rundi said.