A total of eight (8) anjung usahawan (entrepreneur centre) will be built in the Northern Region Development Agency (NRDA) area, which encompassed the Limbang and Lawas districts.
“We are building a total of eight anjung usahawan in the Limbang division, two being in Limbang and six in Lawas,” said Regional Director of NRDA, Datu Ubaidillah Bin Abdul Latip during a recent interview with Rakan Sarawak at Lawas.
At the moment of writing, he noted that two of the anjung usahawan are at the near completion stage while the others are still in construction phase.
As the cottage industry plays a huge role in the socio-economic activities of the local communities in the Limbang division, he described the anjung usahawan are set to become business centres, where the communities can sell and promote their products.
The Limbang division is known for its beading, parang-making industry as well as the fishery sector for making ikan tahai.
In addition to this, Datu Ubaidillah said that NRDA is also reviewing one anjung usahawan to be located at Ba’Kelalan.
Seen as an important and growing centre point, Ba’Kelalan is deems as the connecting point to the new capital Nusantara in Kalimantan and hence also the entrance to Lawas, Sabah, Brunei and other parts of Sarawak.
And due to this, Datu Ubaidillah said that the area is set to be a business and service centre, called the Pelan Perkhidmatan Ba’ Kelalan with facilities such as various government agencies as well as utility providers among others to be part of it.
“The stakeholders which includes the representatives of the local community want to make sure it (anjung usahawan) becomes one of component of the service centre,” he said, adding that the area has the potential to become a new township for the local community there.
He noted that anjung usahawan will only be a small part of the service centre and with that they hope that it a new growth area not only for the locals but also those within the vicinity.
As of now, it was noted that the anjung usahawan in Ba’Kelalan is still at a planning stage.
After the completion of the anjung usahawan project, NRDA will hand over the facilities to the respective councils to manage.