Speaking to the media at a breaking-of-fast event recently, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said that Sabahans are fortunate to have a Prime Minister who is concerned about Sabah.

Rahman said he brought the entire top EPU team to Sabah last year to have a first hand look at the situation in the city, Kota Belud, Kota Marudu and Kudat, as a result of which we are now seeing improvement on the Yayasan Sabah-Indah Permai stretch and the flyovers.

He said the State Government has also requested to extend the dual carriageway from Yayasan Sabah to the upcoming Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) along Tg Lipat into three lanes which is faced with congestion daily. "I am also looking into that."

"Certainly Sabah is the next frontier State for economic development in Malaysia. We still have land, the potential to go forward and a lot to be uncovered in Sabah economically-speaking.

"I'm here to help the State Government and the people of Sabah and I really hope that in the years ahead, we will be the region yang kedepan dibidang ekonomi (ahead economically in the region).

He said, no doubt there are still issues regarding the high cost of living which is hoped would be alleviated by the recent exemption of the Cabotage shipping policy and are being tackled one by one through improved port efficiency, among others.

He said all this is possible because the EPU has a huge budget of about RM46 billion yearly.

Even then, 2017 was not really his budget as it was decided before he agreed to move from the Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government portfolio