THE Sabah government urged MASWings to reconsider its decision to stop servicing the Kota Kinabalu-Tawau and Kota Kinabalu-Sandakan routes effective January 1 next year.

Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal said the decision was a matter of serious concern because of the importance of air transportation to the tourism sector in the state.

“I’m asking this decision to be reviewed because the tourism sector is very important to the state and depends mainly on air transportation.

“Visitors travel to several places in the state such as Semporna and Lembah Danum in Lahad Datu, which takes longer if they use land transportation,” he said when met by reporters of after a get-together with educators in Semporna last night.

In an unrelated matter, Shafie said the state government had always emphasised and focused on the importance of education in efforts to produce human capital to assist in the development of the state.

Shafie said the initial commitment made was to create a state Education and Innovation Ministry.

He said despite financial constraints, the state government was confident that it could strengthen the education sector in Sabah.

Shafie said the important thing was to implement initial restructuring and to formulate several good initiatives. – Bernama, November 11, 2018.