The Sandakan Municipal Council aims to achieve City Hall status by 2030.

Its President Datuk James Wong said this would be possible if the local government could collect a revenue of RM100 million by 2025.

"For 2016, we have recorded a surplus revenue of RM2,572,000 based on the collection of RM87,140,000 against expenditure amounting to RM84,569,000.

"The excess was due to the effort of all quarters to improve collection and financial prudence," he said.

Wong said this during the swearing-in ceremony of 23 councillors for the 2017-2018 session on Wednesday.

Also, present to witness the event was Assistant Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Zakaria Edris.

Meanwhile, Wong said in early estimates the District Council would be spending RM63,672,000 on operations and management from the RM63,919,000 allocation set for the year 2017.

He said the figure would only be clear by the end of the year, adding that it would jump further due to the collection of rental from seven People's Housing Project in the district, Federal Government grants and others.