Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy
[2][3] SCORE was launched on 11 February 2008 by the 5th Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
[4] SCORE was immediately placed under the jurisdiction of Regional Corridors Development Authority (RECODA) where the latter was created under an ordinance passed in the state assembly back in 2006.
[7] In November 2015, chief minister Adenan Satem halted the Baram Dam project indefinitely due to persistent protests from the local communities.
[8] In 2017, Sarawak acquired Bakun Dam from the Malaysian federal government at a cost of RM 2.5 billion.
[15] By 2013, the state government has identified SCORE as one of the means to achieve high income and advanced economy by 2030.
[19] This agency covers an area of 18,462 km2 involving 75,000 people across 244 villages and longhouses in Bario, Mulu, and Long Lama.
[21][24] Deputy chief minister Douglas Uggah Embas served as the inaugural chairman of the HDA.
[23] Among the projects implemented were Long Lama Rural Growth Centre and Integrated Highland Agriculture Station (IHAS).
[26] IHAS aims to become an agricultural products collection, chilling, and packaging facility for the Baram region.
[19] Deputy chief minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan was the inaugural NRDA Chairman.
[18] As of 2014, 15 out of 19 projects in SCORE are located in Samalaju, with total cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) of MYR 27 billion.
Residential properties, shoplots, transportation hub, and light industrial facilities are located inside the Eco Park Township.
[34] In response to this, the 2019 RECODA annual report included details of private investments made by each company and number of jobs created.
[43][44] Tanjung Manis aims to become a palm oil integrated centre and halal food hub.
In 2013, Sea Party International Co Ltd from Taiwan invested in this area, involving in tilapia, marine fish, and shrimp farming projects.
[56] According to a report published in 2011, although SCORE helps to diversify Sarawak energy sources away from fossil fuels, it met several technical challenges such as a lack of proper highways to carry raw materials into rural areas, lack of proper electricity networks to carry power to consumers, difficulties in river diversion, tunneling, channeling, transportation of machines and turbines to the dam construction sites, and lack of highly trained engineers and construction workers to build the spillways, powerhouses, transformers, turbines, and dam face.
These problems could make the electricity generated from SCORE unaffordable because of cost overruns and delays in financing the projects.
An example is the cost overruns of Bakun Dam six times higher than the original price of RM 2.5 billion due to delays, rising interest rates, strikes and problems with excavations.
Initially, construction companies have to underestimate their risks in order to have an edge in the tender bidding process.
When problems emerged during constructions, additional payment have to be made in order to keep the project afloat, thus making the electricity generated by dams in Sarawak to be two to three times higher than expected.
[5] Building dams in the middle of the forests can be construed as high risk project as it deals with many problems such as logistical issues, indigenous communities and their lands, contractors and corruptions.
The construction of dams also causes environmental damage due to logging, changes in water biochemical profile, emission of methane gas from rotten vegetation, and submersion of tropical rainforests.
