REQUEST TO REPLACE STALLS WITH SME COMMERCIAL CENTER

Kota Kinabalu, 17 November 2009. The State Assemblyman of Kunak, Sabah Datuk Nilwan Kabang today requested the Sabah State Government to setup a commercial premise taking the model of the Tawau Central Market or the Alor Star Pekan Rabu building, to replace the make-shift stalls of Gerai Simpang Empat.

Simpang Empat Stall in Kunak

Datuk Nilwan made the proposal in his speech debating the Sabah State 2010 Budget tabled by Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman, the Chief Minister of Sabah who is also the Minister of Finance on Friday, November 13, 2009 at the Sabah State Assembly in Kota Kinabalu

According to Datuk Nilwan the emergence of a new, locally innovated Small and Medium Entrepreneurship (SME) product, giant cassava crackers, which is now more affectionately labelled as Kunak Cassava Crackers, synonym to Kunak District, enhanced the commercial activities at Simpang Empat Stalls.

"Beginning with three stalls constructed by the locals some twenty years earlier from discarded planks for frame and corroded zinc sheets for roofing, the number of stalls steadily increased to the present number of more than twenty”, said Datuk Nilwan.

"The row of stalls, humble as it is, is the commercial site that received most tourists, local and foreign, in Kunak District.

"Therefore, I hereby request for some of the 2010 budget provision for development be channeled to construct a commercial center for SME and agricultural products at the Simpang Empat Stall site, to replace the make-shift stalls”, added Datuk Nilwan.

The Kunak People’s Representative also responded to the Chief Minister’s call to continue producing new and competitive tourism products by suggesting what he termed as, “Kunak Tourism Package which is to be Sabah’s Latest and Innovative Tourist Destination”.

According to Datuk Nilwan, Kunak is an invaluable latent tourism treasure, only that, developers of the tourism industry are too preoccupied with products that they already have, that they tend to overlook this “tourism gold mine”.

The Kunak Tourism Package integrates crucial elements for tourist attractions including prehistoric background, eco-tourism, agro-tourism and marine-tourism.