THE RM100 million rubber technology centre in Jerantut that was heavily criticised by former minister Teresa Kok is merely at the proposal stage and  is still undergoing due process, said the Malaysian Rubber Board (MRB).

 “It is only in the planning stage and a comprehensive feasibility study is still ongoing and therefore there is no approval from the government just yet,” newly appointed MRB chairman Ahmad Nazlan Idris said yesterday in a statement.

Ahmad said the MRB directors and the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry had also yet to given the proposal any consideration.

“The approval process to develop the land for a research centre needs to go through the full procedure, ” he said in response to Kok’s questioning of the centre to be built in Ahmad’s parliamentary constituency.

Kok, the Seputeh MP, was critical of Ahmad’s rush to get the project off the ground shortly after taking over the MRB chair.

She said the centre was being proposed at a time when the government needed to be prudent in its spending.

Ahmad, the Jerantut MP, was appointed to the chair about a month ago. He had said that the centre was proposed because the MRB prioritised research and development in the rubber industry. – May 27, 2020.