Day: June 22, 2022

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia’s largest electricity utility, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), has signed an Energy Wheeling Agreement (EWA) for the sale, transmission and purchase of electrical energy at a minimum of 30 megawatt (MW) up to 100 MW from Laos to Singapore through Thailand and Malaysia using the existing interconnections facilities owned by all the countries involved.

The EWA was signed between TNB, Electricité du Laos (EDL) and Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), it said in a filing with the national stock exchange Bursa Malaysia Wednesday.

TNB said the EWA will be effective for two years from June 22, 2022. The role of TNB under the EWA is to transmit energy generated from Laos to Singapore.

“TNB is under no obligation to top up any shortfall of energy transmitted from Laos by EDL. EDL will pay wheeling charges to TNB for the wheeling services,” said the Malaysian multinational electricity company.

The signing of the EWA will not have any effect on the issued and paid-up share capital and TNB’s substantial shareholders, and neutral impact on TNB’s earnings over the term of the EWA.

None of TNB’s directors or major shareholders and/ or persons connected with them has any interest, direct or indirect, relating to the agreement, TNB added.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

KUCHING, The Volunteer Fire Brigade (PBS) units that serve with a passion to save lives are unsung heroes, said Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (JPBM) director Datuk Khirudin Drahman.

He said PBS units play an important role in helping the department in the event of any disaster and emergency.

“They (PBS) have been trained and they are the first to respond before the fire brigade reaches the scene, especially if there is a fire in rural and remote areas that are difficult to access.

“In this situation, the efficiency and expertise of the trained PBS are very useful in helping to save the victims from losing property or being killed,” he told Bernama when met recently.

Khirudin said given that Sarawak covers 124,000 square kilometres, it was impossible and difficult for the 38 existing fire stations to deliver services to the community in a short time.

“So to ensure that the service reaches the community from Tanjung Datu to Lawas, the short-term solution or fire initiative is to encourage the setting up of PBS to help firefighters and be the first responders.

“We do not want to see fire victims’ houses razed to the ground by the time the fire brigade arrives at the scene like the fire incident involving a longhouse that was completely destroyed in Betong five years ago and claimed the life of a five-year-old child while two victims suffered severe burns,” he said.

Thus far, the PBS which is under the provisions of Section 62 (1) (Ca) of the Fire Services Act 1988 has a total of 56 units registered throughout Sarawak with 2,471 members.

Meanwhile, Kampung Bako Indah PBS chairman Noh Yahim said the community in the village felt the urgency to set up PBS because they realised the importance of first responders after witnessing a large fire involving four houses in the village in 2005.

“Since then, we have put together a total of 30 members and officially became a member of PBS in 2008 after completing a three-month course at the Tabuan Jaya fire station,” he said.

The biggest success of PBS Kampung Bako was during the 2012 incident that took place in a nearby village called Kampung Bako Hijrah involving a house on fire where the volunteer team was able to prevent the blaze from spreading to four other houses before the fire and rescue department team arrived.

“The second incident was in 2016, where I personally managed to rescue a man who fell from the jetty while doing work there,” he said.

He said, when you have a saviour mentality, the first thing that comes to mind in the event of untoward incidents is to save lives. That is how important the role of PBS is because many still do not understand its role and function.

Kampung Simpok PBS chairman Alice Luna Bala said the PBS in her village was established in 2017 after a major flood occurred in their village three years earlier which caused her community to be cut off for three days.

Since then, more and more villagers realised the importance of first responders in the event of a disaster and the number of PBS Kampung Simpok members which started with 10 people has now increased to over 30 people.

“Even though most members have their own commitment, we are still ready to carry out volunteer work without expecting anything in return,” she said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

“As we are aware some of them are very old and needing to wait can be very inconvenient for them,” he said when checking on the ‘Makkah Route’ process organised by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here today.

Also present were Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Malaysia Datuk Dr Mahmoud Hussien Saeed Qattan and Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) executive director (Operations) Mohamed Ameen S.M.A Abdul Wahab.

Through the Makkah Route, prospective Malaysian pilgrims to Makkah are no longer required to go through time-consuming procedures upon arrival at the Saudi Arabia airport.

Saudi Arabian immigration personnel will be at the KLIA counters to vet the pilgrims’ passports and on their arrival at Jeddah or Madinah, they are not required to go through the immigration and customs processes there.

Malaysia was the first country selected for the Makkah Route pilot programme in 2017 and this was continued in 2018 and 2019.

This year, Malaysia was among five countries selected to participate in the initiative along with four other countries namely Morocco, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Ahmad Marzuk said as of yesterday, over 7,000 pilgrims or about half of Malaysia’s haj quota had arrived in Makkah through the initiative adding that Malaysia was selected based on several factors including its orderly management of pilgrims and the strong ties between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, Large houses that are two or three storeys high are recommended to install the Mesh Wi-Fi system to get good Internet coverage.

Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chief operating officer Datuk Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus said this is because the Mesh Wi-Fi has routers that help to coordinate coverage throughout the home area, covering every corner of the space.

“When staff from telco service provider (telecommunication company) comes, he has to look at the whole house or premises and if the house is two-storey or three-storey, we recommend these big houses use Mesh Wi-Fi.

“This Mesh Wi-Fi has a router and it will collect the router signals as if it was a repeater, for each floor and coordinate coverage throughout the house,” he said when appearing as a guest on the ‘Internet dan Anda’ programme on Bernama TV tonight.

Apart from that, Mohd Ali Hanafiah said the latest devices that have access to 4G and 5G networks also play an important role in getting good and fast Internet coverage.

Meanwhile, Mohd Ali Hanafiah said to date, a total of 911 Keluarga Malaysia Digital Economy Centres (PEDi) had been set up nationwide, in an effort to provide Internet connectivity to the people.

“The PEDi is not only being set up in rural areas, it also operates in the city where we want to help the urban poor to get access to fast Internet and not be left behind.

“This is because through PEDi, the people can use and borrow the equipment provided such as cameras and tablets. Among the urban areas that have PEDi are in Putrajaya and Sentul, Kuala Lumpur,” he said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, The Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (K-KOMM) will expedite the initiative to establish cooperation with ASEAN countries to expand telecommunications and creative industry markets, said its Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

He said he had mentioned in the post-cabinet meeting this morning that K-KOMM should start the initiative immediately by creating a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with all ASEAN countries, giving priority to bordering countries.

“I would like to see an MoU that clearly explores this cooperation without having to wait for people to invite us, we need to be brave and come out from our cocoon. We have many things to offer in terms of cooperation with other countries in telecommunications and the creative industry including film,” he said.

Annuar said this after attending the special movie screening of ‘Mat Kilau-Kebangkitan Pahlawan’ (Mat Kilau-The Rise of A Warrior) at a Golden Screen Cinema in a mall here tonight.

Elaborating, he said ASEAN should be seen as an economic region and Malaysia should take advantage of that by initiating the first move to create cooperation with other countries.

He said ASEAN has a population totalling hundreds of millions and has good purchasing power and economic growth.

“We have so much potential and in the film industry, we must take our initiative. Thus, we should create MoUs…including the cooperation in films,” he said.

Annuar said previous MoUs with other countries had mostly expired or were outdated before the global onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So, they must be renewed…and this is important because after COVID-19 all countries are racing to restore their economies and lives,” he said.

On the Film In Malaysia Incentive (FIMI), Annuar hoped that the fund would be used more widely by industry players due to its relatively low number of recipients.

“We have a revolving fund of more than RM300 million but takers are still low, it just so happened that COVID-19 came about and so on. I want to see FIMI funds fully utilised with more initiatives for us to work with producers from other countries,” he said.

He also asked the National Film Development Corporation (FINAS) to set up a special fund to encourage the making of films that can be jointly produced or co-directed between local and international industry players to expand the film market.

Commenting on ‘Mat Kilau – Kebangkitan Pahlawan’, Annuar called on local film industry activists to produce more patriotic-themed works with historical value.

This was because the country has many historical events that could be made into films and shared with the masses, he said.

“I hope more films with historical value and which carry positive messages (be made) for the community because films are not just entertainment but also have their distinctive roles (to play),” Annuar added.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KOTA KINABALU, The government together with stakeholders are now working to address the issue of raw material shortage facing the country’s cocoa industry, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin.

She said the production of raw materials in the country, especially cocoa beans, at present could not meet the demand needed for the domestic cocoa products market, let alone to meet the demand for overseas markets.

Zuraida said one of the important measures being taken by the government to address the issue was to increase the upstream activities of the cocoa industry, especially to increase cocoa cultivation and plantation in the country.

“Currently, our processing hub in Johor has to import cocoa beans from abroad to export cocoa products, we have become a grinding centre now, if possible we want to grind our own beans for export.

“There is demand for cocoa products but currently we do not have enough raw materials, we still do not have enough crop area, so we are trying to increase it,” she told a press conference after attending the 2022 Malaysian Cocoa Industry Award ceremony here tonight.

Zuraida said currently, the ministry was also engaging with state governments such as Sabah and Sarawak to expand cocoa cultivation in the country.

“We are also trying to get land for this crop and form cooperatives for this industry to make the management more effective and establish higher productivity and quality,” she said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency