Bernama.com (Malaysian National News Agency), 08 July 2006 08:04 AM

Najib Wants Felda To Explore New Fields

KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 (Bernama) -- Felda ought to explore new fields, especially biotechnology, in the face of stiff competition from transnational corporations and countries riding on the wave of globalisation and liberalisation, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the greatest threat to Felda today was the negative attitude of complacency.

Like other large organisations, he said, there was always the tendency to become complacent and to get into the comfort zone.

"Felda must avoid the danger of being static and unwilling to change and instead seek to improve and remain continuously dynamic," he said when launching Felda's 50th anniversary celebrations here Friday.

Felda, he said, had no option but to move up the value chain by venturing into areas like biotechnology, especially in herbal and biomass activities.

Outlining five visions to propel Felda to greater heights in the next 50 years, he said, firstly the Felda community must emerge as a model community with modern, clean, beautifully-landscaped environment and free from all social ills such as crime, drug addiction, teen pregnancy and poverty.

For this to happen, the Felda community must be provided with the full range of basic infrastructure such as water, electricity, road and other basic facilities such as health, education and communication network.

Secondly, Felda must ensure emergence of a new middle-class among settlers by increasing and diversifying their income, he said.

Felda, he said, had to strengthen its non-farm activities such as agriculture, trading, aquaculture, handicraft and services.

Najib said the third strategy was the need for Felda to become a global player by instilling a pro-business, corporate culture and to cultivate a large, multi-skilled and multi-talented human resource.

Fourthly, the focus must be harnessing and developing the potential of the second generation settlers totalling about 500,000 people, he said.

In this context, Najib, who is also the chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Felda, said Felda must continue to provide educational and employment opportunities for this new generation of settlers.

Finally, Felda must strengthen itself as an institution for the right sense of value, expertise, result-oriented and high performance culture.

Since Felda's formation on July 7, 1956, it now has 104,946 settlers in 278 schemes covering an area of 811,140 hectares.

To date, Felda had developed 702,932 hectares of oil palm and 102,082 hectares of rubber, constituting 18 per cent and nine per cent of the country's crop areas respectively, with the balance of 6,509 hectares under sugarcane and other crops.

Felda produced approximately 19 per cent of Malaysia's palm oil and 16 per cent of its rubber and had transformed itself into a corporate player with 49 companies and joint ventures with an annual turnover of RM8 billion, he said.

Najib said Felda also supplied about eight per cent of the world's palm oil.

With strong demand from the United States, West Asia and European Union, Felda is in a position to capture a bigger share of the world's palm oil market, he said.

Speaking to reporters later, Najib said Felda settlers who have rubber plantations could earn between RM6,000 and RM8,000 a month while settlers in oil palm schemes earn about RM1,500 a month.

At the ceremony, Najib also launched Felda commemorative coins, stamps and first-day covers.

-- BERNAMA