Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali says, more time and bargaining are needed to carry out matters agreed under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) that includes Sarawak’s rights and interests.

Regardless of the present situation of Movement Control Order (MCO), now renamed as National Recovery Plan, many meetings were held via Zoom in order to straighten out the information on the agreement between the state and federal government, says the Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Law, State-Federal Relations, and Project Monitoring).

Datuk Sharifah continued, “Our negotiations and talks are ongoing, and there are still a lot more matters that need to be settled and ironed out under the MA63, especially the commercial settlement agreement with Petronas,” after delivering food aid that was organised by the Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers (SHEDA) Kuching branch.

She noted that the current problem is to put agreements into motion, remarking that progress has been disrupted by the current movement restriction. Petronas and the Sarawak government concluded a business settlement agreement in December last year, allowing the latter to receive a larger share of profits from its oil and gas resources. Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros), a state-owned oil and gas exploration corporation, agreed to take a more active role in the oil and gas business under the terms of the agreement.