Government To Ensure No Overlapping Of Duties In Corridor Projects

11/17/2009 — BERNAMA
The government will ensure there is no overlapping of duties among the federal government, state governments and ministries in implementing projects under the umbrella plan on regional development, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop.
He said to ensure there was no overlapping the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Iskandar Malaysia corridor, the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) and the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) were all put under one unit in the Prime Minister’s Department that was overseen by him.
“We will also ensure that the main duty and purpose of a corridor would be to find investments and develop the region,” Nor said when replying to a supplementary question by Datuk Ismail Kassim (BN-Arau) in the Dewan Rakyat here Tuesday.
Ismail wanted to know the government’s plans for the future that projects under the NCER proceeded smoothly without any overlapping of duties by the federal government, state government and ministries.
Answering a question by Mohd Firdaus Jaafar (PAS-Jerai) on the percentage of progress in the NCER, Nor said 23 of the 29 projects had been started, among them the Integrated Agriculture Project and Agro-entrepreneur Practical Training Centre at Bukit Kura Kedah and the Applied Science and Technology Institute.
“The rest of the projects are in the early implementation stage involving initial works like design, environmental impact evaluation, surveying and site preparation before the projects can be implemented,” he said.
Answering a supplementary question by Mohd Firdaus on the cause of flooding in several areas in Kedah allegedly due to the delay in NCER projects, Nor said the responisibilty lay with several ministries.
“The role of the corridors is not to take over the duties of certain ministries. Floods and efforts to control floods as well as having an integrated system to reduce incidents of flooding is something that is given priority under the 10th Malaysia Plan,” he said.