KUCHING: Sarawak is exploring the development of bamboo as an alternative raw material to timber for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Assistant Industrial Development Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi said the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) and local agencies would work with their Chinese counterparts to develop the bamboo industry in the state.
“Bamboo is a renewable source of raw materials and a great potential crop for SMEs, particularly those in the timber industry,” he said at the opening of the Sarawak Timber and SME Expo 2015 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching yesterday.
STIDC signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s Centre of Anji Bamboo Research and Design to collaborate on research and development in bamboo plantations and product manufacturing in the state.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem said the state was targeting one million hectares of land to be planted with fast-growing timber species by 2020 under its forest plantation policy.
He said there was a need to pursue this to speed up the production in order to ensure the sustainability of timber resources.-thestar
