KOTA KINABALU: Seven priorities will be implemented to promote cultural development in Sabah.
They are the digitisation of cultural arts (eCulture), integrated cultural tourism, cultural preservation, strengthening of ethnic relations, cultural research and documentation, cultural arts development and intellectual property protection.
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor stated that the priorities were in line with the state’s Sabah Maju Jaya Development initiative for all ethnic cultural development.
“Through these priorities, we want all the cultural bodies and communities to develop together, to appreciate and further embody the cultural values that they inherited from their ancestors, and to pass them on to future generations,” he said.
Hajiji added that under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP), four high-impact projects with an allocation of RM4.5mil have been approved.
Among the projects are the Sabah State Cultural Development Plan 2020-2030 and the Cultural Mapping Project 2021-2025, he added.
He pointed out that the allocation is also meant to improve the Murut Sabah Cultural Centre in the interior Tenom district, as well as the Penampang Sabah Cultural Centre.
Hajiji said the government has also allocated RM9.5mil to the Sabah Cultural Board under the Sabah 2023 Budget to implement various programmes to conserve the state’s wealth of ethnic cultural heritage.
“It includes the Cultural Pit-Stop, which has been designed to empower the culture-based tourism industry with two new locations in Kota Belud and Tawau,” he added.
The Chief Minister also called on all community leaders, state government departments and agencies, as well as non-governmental organisations among others, to continue empowering and preserving the state’s arts, culture and customs the best they could.
The Chief Minister also said that Sabahans are proud of the 35 main ethnic groups and 217 sub-ethnicities that live in their state.
“All of them have their own culture and language,” he said, while also calling on the ethnic associations to continue developing their respective cultures to ensure that these valuable assets do not disappear but instead are recognised internationally.
