Five-Year Visas for Talents
18 - 24 August 2025. Issue 51.
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The introduction of the 5-year visa for professionals is going to be one of the top few things that will unblock many of the bottlenecks that are facing mega projects in Sarawak, as decades of brain drain have resulted in a dearth of talents. But brain drain happened for good reasons and those reasons need to be addressed at some point…
Meanwhile, an area larger than the size of the island of Labuan in the Rajang Delta has been identified for paddy cultivation, an even larger area has been set aside to safeguard our genetic cousins, the orang utans; and in a rare show of teeth, Sarawak Forestry Corporation has pushed back against having a trunk road slicing through a national park! Well done, SFC!
This week’s infographic takes a quick look at vaping. The Ministry of Health is weighing a nationwide ban, and Sarawak faces a particular challenge – we have the highest proportion of teen vapers in the country. Even more startling, there are no publicly available cigarette sales figures in Malaysia for comparison, because tobacco companies aren’t required to disclose them.
Lastly, this week’s op-ed expounds on a long held personal frustration - that we Sarawakians are always either portrayed as hunting hornbills with blowpipes; or dancing slow-motion in a longhouse! When I see that, I just want to climb back up into my tree house and eat coconuts.
Read the op-ed here: