Between 2006 and 2010, the Federal Government of Malaysia announced a series of five economic corridors in a farsighted attempt to stimulate global and domestic investment in traditionally rural areas to create balanced development throughout the country.

The first 3 corridors, the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), Iskandar Develoment Region (IDR) and the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) were formulated and adopted during the period 2006-2007. The regional development plans for Sabah and Sarawak were finalized and adopted in early 2009.

Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) is now firmly established as one of Malaysia’s five economic corridors.

In terms of land area, SCORE is the second largest of the corridors and covers an area of more than 70,000 square kilometres of the resource rich central region with a population of more than 600,000.

SCORE has a long coastline of more than 1,000 km, over 8 million hectares of forests, almost 5 million hectares of arable land and peat land suitable for agriculture. The corridor has 1.2 billion of known oil reserves, over 80 million tonnes of Silica sand and over 22 million tonnes of Kaolin of China clay, a key component of cosmetics, ceramics and, most recent, for combat area medical equipment.

SCORE has an abundance of natural resources, including clean and safe renewable resources, such as hydropower, that offers commercial users clean energy at competitive rates.

In view of this, the 2008 – 2030 development plan for SCORE focuses on developing the energy sector and targets 10 high impact priority industries that will complement the development plan and also provide downstream opportunities for SMEs.

This is in line with the State’s ninth Malaysia plan to capitalize on the State’s energy resources. The availability of inexpensive energy gives SCORE a significant advantage when competing to attract energy intensive industries and this has already resulted in a number of early successes.

As more energy intensive industries establish themselves in SCORE, they will form the bedrock of the SCORE strategy, giving a robust boost to the development of the growth nodes which in turn will require training centres and technical colleges to train the population and create a core of skilled workers thereby raising the living standards of the population.

As SCORE grows, the benefits will impact the whole State and give citizens in the rural areas the opportunity to participate in the State’s primary goal to become a high income state on a par with the wealthier states in Peninsular Malaysia by 2020.

As employment increases, the socio economic inequality between rural and urban areas will be reduced and poverty eradicated. Quality of life will improve for the long term, more high income jobs will be created and the economy will move up the value chain in line with the 5 thrusts of the national mission and the key tenets of the State’s ninth Malaysia plan.

In addition to the extensive subsidies offered by the Federal Government and mindful of the costs and potential risks early movers are faced with, the State Government has also developed a number of incentives over and above those of the Federal Government to encourage investors. For more information on these State incentives, please refer to incentives.

The State Government’s commitment to the success of SCORE will establish long-term business confidence in the region and help Sarawak become the destination of choice for business investment.