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The Sabah Society will host an optimistic theme talk on “The Future of Lahad Datu” by former Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Yong Teck Lee on Wednesday 31st March, 2021 at 8 p.m. at Damai Plaza premises which will also be on Zoom / Facebook online.

Our speaker, Datuk Seri Panglima Yong Teck Lee’s vision for Lahad Datu include an integrated international airport with a ferry terminal, a maritime academy, building towards being 5G-enabled, a gas-powered plant, food safety and certification facility, among others. 

Yong Teck Lee is the current chairman of state-owned POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd, the the developer of the Lahad Datu based Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC).

Born in 1958, Datuk Yong who spent his young childhood in Lahad Datu is well versed with the history of his home town and is keen to change any negative perception towards Lahad Datu. It is now touted as a safe and attractive investment hub with its comparative advantages to be a major contributor to the Sabah economy.

Lahad Datu is surrounded by stretches of cocoa and oil palm plantations and was a timber exporting port with and small airport for domestic flights.

A settlement is believed to have existed here in the 15th century, as excavations have unearthed Ming Dynasty Chinese ceramics. Just east of Lahad Datu is the village of Tunku, a notorious base for pirates and slave traders in the 19th century.

On 23 September 1985, 15-20 armed foreign bank robbers from the neighbouring Philippines landed on this town, killing at least 21 people and injuring 11 others. Another intrusion occurred in February 2013 and lasted for over than a month between Malaysian armed forces and the Filipino militants that resulted in the creation of the Eastern Sabah Security Command and Eastern Sabah Security Zone. 

After 15 years of establishment (2005), it is now time for POIC to be a focus centre for national and regional investment over the next ten years by leveraging its location along the Lombok-Makassar shipping route, and centrality within BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area) to become a logistics hub for the region by developing oil palm downstream and other industries and to promote manufacturing to generate outward cargo.

This will elevate Sabah as the heart of BIMP-EAGA and enhance development and inter-territorial economic opportunities especially with Indonesia’s planned new national capital in East Kalimantan.

Kindly please contact us 088 – 250 443 / 013 – 880 9850 or email us sabahsoc@gmail.com to book your seat as we have limited seats. As usual, we will adhere to the MCO SOP which is mask and hand sanitisation.