SERIAN: A new rural road linking Kampung Mantung and Kampung Mayang Kawan will improve connectivity across the greater Kuching and the region here while enhancing access to neighbouring constituencies.
Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Datuk Seri Roland Sagah Wee Inn said the road network had been planned to connect surrounding constituencies, making travel between Serian and neighbouring areas more convenient.
“What we want is for all our areas to be connected according to our planning. From here, it will be easier to reach Tebedu.
“After Tebedu, it’s easier to reach my area (Tarat), the Padawan and Samarahan areas, and it becomes even easier to reach Mambong, and from there to Bau — all within a fairly short distance,” he said at the Greater Kuching Coordinated Development Agency (GKCDA) groundbreaking ceremony for the road project in Kedup yesterday (July 13).
Sagah, who chairs the GKCDA, also urged villagers benefiting from the new road to diversify their economic activities beyond oil palm cultivation.
He said Deputy Minister of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Datuk Martin Ben had expressed interest in cattle rearing and encouraged residents with fertile but underutilised land to consider livestock farming, including sheep.
“Not just cattle — sheep too can work.
“As the Premier has said before, Serian could become Sarawak’s New Zealand,” he said.
Sagah added that he believed the Ministry of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development could undertake studies on crops and livestock to help expand Serian’s agricultural sector into a larger industry, in line with the state’s ambition of becoming Southeast Asia’s hub for renewable energy, food and digital technology.
