Malaysia’s First Cluster Under the World Economic Forum – Bintulu: A Gateway to ASEAN’s Next Energy and Industrial Frontier
IT is my great honour to welcome you to Sarawak as we gather to mark an important milestone in our journey towards a high-income, sustainable and innovation-driven economy.
Firstly, I would like to thank the World Economic Forum (WEC) for this partnership and for selecting Sarawak as the home of Malaysia’s first Transitioning Industrial Cluster (TIC).
I would also like to express my appreciation to the Ministry of Digital, and MyDIGITAL Corporation for the support in bringing this initiative to fruition.
And to all 23 TIC signatories, industry leaders, investors, and partners gathered here today – your commitment and partnership have turned this vision into reality.
We are living through a period of constant industrial transformation.
For decades, industrial competitiveness was defined by three things: access to resources, access to energy, and access to markets.
Today, a fourth dimension has emerged: sustainability.
Global markets are no longer competing on price alone. Increasingly, they are scrutinising how products are made – measuring carbon intensity, production processes, and compliance with tightening environmental standards.
Green steel, low-carbon aluminium, sustainable chemicals and clean hydrogen are no longer emerging concepts on the margins of industry.
They are fast becoming the baseline requirements for participation in global value chains—where buyers, investors, and regulators are demanding lower-carbon, lower-energy inputs across production.
As trade rules, supply chains, and capital flows realign around these expectations, early movers will secure a disproportionate share of new industries, investments, and market access.
This is why Sarawak wants to be a first-mover in industrial transformation—not only to advance sustainability, but to secure economic advantage and long-term competitiveness in a rapidly shifting global market.
The question is what kind of industrialisation will define the future.
Which industries will remain competitive in a carbon-constrained world?
Which regions will attract the next generation of investments?
And which economies will successfully combine growth, resilience and sustainability?
These questions are particularly important for industrial and energy-producing regions such as Sarawak.
Therefore, the Bintulu Transitioning Industrial Cluster is more than a new initiative. It is a platform to accelerate industrial transformation, strengthen competitiveness, and position Sarawak at the forefront of the next era of industrial development.
It reflects our belief that the future will belong not to individual projects or facilities, but to integrated industrial ecosystems that bring together energy, industry, technology, talent and innovation.
And there is no better place to begin that journey than Bintulu.
Why Bintulu and why now?
Why Bintulu?
Because it is where Sarawak’s industrial strength meets its future ambitions.
Together with Samalaju, it forms one of Southeast Asia’s most strategic energy and industrial corridors.
For decades, Bintulu has been at the centre of Sarawak’s industrialisation journey. It is home to one of the world’s largest LNG complexes and has long served as a gateway connecting Sarawak’s resources, industries and exports to global markets.
Over time, that foundation expanded beyond oil and gas.
Through the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy, or SCORE, we invested in the infrastructure, energy capacity and industrial ecosystem needed to attract new industries and diversify our economy.
The development of Samalaju was a key part of that strategy.
Today, Samalaju hosts major energy-intensive industries, including aluminium, ferroalloys, petrochemical and advanced manufacturing.
Powered by Sarawak’s renewable energy resources, it has evolved into one of Southeast Asia’s most significant industrial growth centres.
Together, Bintulu and Samalaju represent decades of investment, industrial capability and infrastructure development.
Through SCORE alone, Sarawak has attracted approximately USD20 billion in investments, creating one of the region’s most significant industrial corridors.
Bintulu’s low-carbon transformation is rooted in strong policies, which also enable technology deployment and strategic partnerships.
Few regions in Southeast Asia possess this combination of strategic location, energy resources, industrial scale and growth potential.
In many ways, Bintulu represents the success of Asia’s industrialisation story. But it can also represent its future.
The next phase of industrial growth will not be defined by individual facilities alone.
It will be shaped by integrated ecosystems that connect energy, industry, technology, infrastructure and talent.
That is the purpose of the Bintulu TIC — bringing together industry, government, financiers and technology partners under a common framework for industrial transformation.
We believe Sarawak can be among the first movers in this new industrial era, with Bintulu helping to define the future of competitive, low-carbon industrial development in Asia.
Why the WEF TIC matters?
The WEF TIC initiative is important because it recognises a fundamental reality – the future of industrial competitiveness will not be built by individual companies acting alone.
It will be built through ecosystems — where industries, governments, financiers, technology providers and research institutions work together to accelerate transformation at scale.
For Bintulu, joining the TIC network connects our industrial cluster to a global platform of 39 clusters across 20 countries that are working on the future of clean and competitive industry.
Collectively, these clusters represent approximately USD 808 billion in economic output, 6.6 million jobs, and 870 million tonnes of potential carbon emissions abatement.
This gives us access to international expertise, proven solutions and strategic partnerships in areas such as clean energy, industrial symbiosis, digitalisation, hydrogen, carbon management, circular systems and workforce development.
The significance of this initiative is not simply that Sarawak is the first in Malaysia to participate. Its real value lies in connecting Bintulu to a global movement that is redefining how industrial regions grow, compete and decarbonise.
Industrial clusters are the cornerstone of economies, generating meaningful jobs. At the same time, they account for some of the toughest emissions to abate.
These figures demonstrate that industrial clusters are where the greatest opportunities for rapid, shared decarbonisation lie, while protecting industrial competitiveness and accelerating Sarawak’s green growth agenda.
The TIC is built around five pillars — policy, finance, technology, partnerships, and infrastructure.
On policy, we are not starting from scratch. Through the Energy Transition Policy, Hydrogen Economy Roadmap, Sustainability Blueprint, and more recently, the Sarawak Net Zero Strategy and Carbon Plan, Sarawak has already set a clear direction for sustainable growth.
The TIC therefore does not create a new direction. It helps operationalise the direction we have already chosen.
On finance, it helps translate ambition into investable opportunities by strengthening the governance, planning and project development needed to attract capital and accelerate implementation.
The pilot projects under this initiative will be an important step in turning strategy into action.
On technology, it connects Bintulu to a global network of industrial innovation — from digitalisation and artificial intelligence to hydrogen, carbon management and circular industrial systems.
This allows us to learn from leading industrial clusters around the world, adapt proven solutions to our own context, and move faster.
A critical enabler of this transformation is partnerships to create shared platform and infrastructure.
Industrial decarbonisation at scale depends on infrastructure that connects industries across energy systems, carbon management, digital platforms, logistics, waste, water and resource flows. This is what allows the cluster to function not as separate industrial assets, but as a coordinated system.
Sarawak’s industrial sector is both a major driver of economic growth and a key contributor to emissions.
As energy demand and industrial activity continue to grow, our challenge is not whether to industrialise, but how to industrialise in a way that strengthens competitiveness while reducing emissions.
Achieving net zero does not mean we stop growing. It means we change how we grow — by making our industries cleaner, more efficient, more resilient and more competitive.
And the most effective way to do this is not company by company, but cluster by cluster.
Through coordinated, system-level transformation, industries can share infrastructure, adopt new technologies, improve efficiency, reduce emissions and create value together.
Decarbonising through industrial clusters
For much of the last century, industrial development was built around individual projects. One factory, one investment, one company operating largely on its own.
That model delivered growth. But the challenges and opportunities of the future require a different approach.
Today, competitiveness increasingly depends on how well industries work together—sharing infrastructure, energy systems, technology, talent and innovation.
The most successful industrial regions will not be those with the largest individual facilities, but those with the strongest ecosystems.
An industrial cluster allows co-located companies to achieve collectively what would be difficult to achieve alone.
Shared infrastructure lowers costs. Shared energy systems improve efficiency. Shared carbon management accelerates decarbonisation. Shared digital platforms improve productivity. And shared talent pipelines strengthen long-term competitiveness.
In other words, the future belongs not to isolated industrial assets, but to connected industrial ecosystems through synergistic impacts.
But ecosystems require the physical infrastructure that connects people, industries, resources and markets.
This is why Sarawak is prioritising the Bintulu–Samalaju rail alignment as the first phase of our rail development programme.
Once completed, it will connect Bintulu Port, Kidurong Industrial Estate and Samalaju Industrial Park into a more integrated industrial and logistics corridor.
While the implementation will be phased out, the end goal is clear – evolving Bintulu into a more integrated industrial ecosystem through connected industrial ecosystems and infrastructure.
What the TIC is and what it will do
The TIC is a coordinated platform to accelerate industrial transformation across the Bintulu–Samalaju corridor, bringing together industry, government, technology partners and financiers under a common framework for action.
It is also one of the enabling initiatives under the forthcoming Sarawak Net Zero Strategy and Carbon Plan, developed through a comprehensive study to chart Sarawak’s decarbonisation pathway.
Decarbonising industries through the TIC initiative will be an important part to meet Sarawak’s goal to maintain our net-negative position while creating new opportunities for investment, industrial growth and long-term economic resilience.
To translate ambition into implementation, we have identified four pilot projects that will commence this year.
The first focuses on Smart Manufacturing Operations, leveraging digital technologies, connectivity and data-driven optimisation to improve industrial productivity and efficiency across the corridor.
The second is the Sarawak CCU-H2 Hub, which will explore pathways for large-scale carbon utilisation and hydrogen production—strengthening the commercial viability of both industries while advancing decarbonisation.
The third is Industrial Symbiosis, creating opportunities for companies to share resources, utilise waste streams and improve efficiency through a more circular industrial ecosystem.
And the fourth is the Bintulu TIC Talent Initiative, which will upskill and reskills for the workforce of the future needed to support industrial transition, digitalisation and emerging low-carbon industries.
Because infrastructure and technology alone do not transform economies. People do.
That is why Sarawak continues to invest in talent development and capability building, ensuring that our people are equipped to lead the industries and opportunities of the future.
These four pilot projects form the foundation of a longer-term transformation—one that will make the Bintulu–Samalaju corridor more competitive, innovative and resilient in the decades ahead.
A call to partnership
The success of the Bintulu Transitioning Industrial Cluster will not be determined by plans alone. It will be determined by the partnerships we build and the actions we take together.
Sarawak will continue to play our part by providing clear policy direction, facilitating coordination, and creating the conditions for long-term investment and growth.
Moving forward, the Federal Government will continue to provide the overarching national framework for industrial transition, while Sarawak will take the lead in implementing policies and initiatives that are tailored to our unique resources, strengths and aspirations.
I have entrusted the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Sustainability Sarawak to drive implementation of the Sarawak TIC, ensuring that the vision for the Bintulu Industrial Cluster is translated into action, strengthened through partnerships to realise tangible outcomes.
This is an industrial cluster we build together—government, industry and partners alike—for the future of Bintulu, the future of Sarawak, and the future of industrial development in our region.
Building the industrial ecosystems of the future
The first industrial revolution was powered by coal, the second by oil, and the third by digital technology.
I believe the next industrial era will be the era of Industrial Ecosystems — where energy, technology, sustainability and talent no longer operate separately, but as one integrated engine of growth.
Bintulu represents the strength of Sarawak’s industrial ambition and the opportunity before us to shape a new generation of clean, competitive industries.
We are developing an integrated industrial ecosystem — one that can draw global partnerships, support Sarawak’s energy transition, and strengthen Malaysia’s long-term economic competitiveness.
If we succeed, Bintulu will not only contribute to Sarawak’s future. It can help shape the future of industrial development in Malaysia, ASEAN and beyond.
Let Bintulu and Sarawak stand as proof that industrial growth, sustainability and prosperity can advance together.
