Ting: Sarawak will have authority to make laws relating to tourism with Federal Constitution amendment
Ting says the state government has proposed to amend Item 25A (Tourism) from List I (Federal List) to List III (Concurrent List) of this Ninth Schedule. – Bernama photo
KUCHING (May 9): The Sarawak government will have the authority to make legislation relating to tourism in the state if the proposed amendment to include ‘tourism’ in List III (Concurrent List) of the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution is approved, said Dato Sebastian Ting.
The Deputy Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister said the state government has proposed to amend Item 25A (Tourism) from List I (Federal List) to List III (Concurrent List) of this Ninth Schedule.
“The Sarawak government’s intention was presented to this august House through a ministerial motion tabled by Deputy Minister in the Premier of Sarawak’s Department (Law, MA63 and State-Federal Relations) which seeks to secure a comprehensive amendment to the Federal Constitution and includes the proposed amendment to Item 25A.
“This proposal was also presented to the federal government and until today, this matter has been actively pursued,” he said during the question-and-answer session at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Sitting here today.
He was responding to a question from Dato Lo Khere Chiang (GPs-Batu Kitang) on where Sarawak was actively pursuing for the reinstatement of autonomous rights for its tourism sector.
Ting said the federal Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) has initiated several discussions with Sarawak and Sabah where both states have presented their stand on the matter.
“The Sarawak government through my ministry and State Attorney General Chambers have reiterated the same stand.
“However, with the change of stand by the Sabah government whereby they proposed for this Item 25A to be taken out from the list and remain as residual matter, a further discussion between the Sarawak Attorney General Chambers and Sabah Attorney General Chambers on Oct 13, 2023, has been initiated to finalise the stand,” he said.
He said to date, Sarawak was still waiting for the Sabah government to finalise their stand before this matter can be brought up to MOTAC and subsequently the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Technical Committee, which will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Dato Sri Fadillah Yusof for further action.
Ting said once ‘tourism’ is inserted under the Concurrent List, the state would then have the flexibility to adapt tourism matters into Sarawak’s local law.
He said these included promoting investment in tourism businesses; developing tourism human resources; improving state management of tourism sectors by generating a favourable environment for tourism businesses; products development on the infrastructure as well as maintenance; facilitate the community-based tourism, locality based tourism and cross border tourism i.e. medical tourism; issuing the licensing for tourist guides, Sarawak-Malaysia My Second Home (S-MM2H), homestay registration and training tourism institution as well as tourism vehicle; implementation of the tourism enforcement; and collection of tourism tax by the Sarawak government.
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