The Pan-Borneo Highway allocation is a separate allocation and not subtracted from the annual budget under the current Malaysia Plan, explained Works Minister Fadillah Yusof today.

Fadillah said the highway is constructed via the Project Delivery Partner (PDP) model, which is similar to Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), including the funding.

More than 60 percent of the construction cost of the highway will be funded through the issuance of sukuk by DanaInfra Nasional Bhd at the capital market and only RM5 billion will be funded through development expenditure.

"Therefore, it is clear that the Pan-Borneo Highway allocation is a separate allocation and it is not subtracted from the annual budget under the current Malaysia Plan," Fadillah said in a press statement released in Kuching today.

The statement was issued in regard to Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem's winding-up speech at the Sarawak legislative assembly recently.

Fadillah further said the government had kept its promise to the rakyat on the construction of the Sarawak section of the Pan-Borneo Highway.

He said the project included construction and upgrading of a 779km single-carriageway road to dual-carriageway road, building and upgrading a total of 115 bridges and constructing three rest and service areas.

Sarawak is one of the states that receive a large allocation, which ranged between seven percent and 10 percent annually in the 11th Malaysia Plan, as in the previous development plan, he said.

Adenan in his winding-up speech had said that the federal government was taking away part of the normal allocation for the state development to finance the Pan-Borneo Highway.

The Sarawak chief minister had said he was pursuing the matter to the state government's satisfaction.

- Bernama