TIMBER exports from Sabah will be temporarily halted with immediate effect as Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal wants an adequate supply of the raw material for the local industry.

He said the move would help create job opportunities for Sabahans in the state’s timber and furniture industries.

“This is among the drastic decisions that the state government will take, and I will immediately inform the Forestry Department, as well as the authorities, that the export of logs will be banned until further instruction is given by the government.

“We want to ensure supply of the material remains adequate for the industry,” he said after being briefed on the present condition of Yayasan Sabah at the Menara Tun Mustapha building in Kota Kinabalu today.

Shafie also announced plans to revamp the Sabah Foundation, reverting the body’s objective back to its original goal to help provide jobs and education to young Sabahans.

He said instructions had been given to Yayasan Sabah to reduce its for-profit ventures into grey areas, saying that the foundation still had enough land, timber, and palm oil.

During the election campaign, the Warisan president had questioned Yayasan Sabah’s commercial ventures, especially its joint venture to build the Sabah International Convention Centre using its own land bank, and promised to set up an inquiry into the foundation’s finances.

When asked by reporters over allegations that he tried to sell some of Yayasan Sabah’s land, Shafie denied this, and said he would look into the matter and find out who the lands had been given to.

On another development, Shafie also said he was merely doing his job to advise former prime minister Najib Razak to take action on the 1MDB scandal, saying it was his responsibility as a leader at the time, as well as “for the love of the country and Malaysians”.

He said this after newly appointed Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Mohd Shukri Abdull named him as one of the only three ministers who dared raise questions about the 1MDB scandal during the Barisan Nasional administration. – May 23, 2018.