His Excellency Tun Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud (centre) watching a demonstration on peat soil with Second Minister of Resource Planning & Environment and Minister of Industrial & Entrepreneur Development, Trade and Investment YB Datuk Amar Haji Awang Tengah Ali Hasan (second right) representing the Chief Minister and Director of Sarawak Tropical Peat Research Institute (Sarawak Tropi) Dr Lulie Melling (second left) after the opening of the complex at Kota Samarahan, Sarawak on 7 November 2016.
The event represented another milestone for Sarawak Tropi (formerly known as Tropical Peat Research Laboratory or TPRL), which was first established under the Chief Minister’s Department in 2008 to conduct research and development on Sarawak’s tropical peatland in order for it to become a sustainable asset that supports the State economy, especially in agriculture.
The institute has successfully organised the 15th International Peat Congress in August 2016, marking the first time the quadrennial event was hosted in Asia since its inception in 1954.
The internationally recognised complex itself began construction in 2012 and was completed in January 2015.
