- 4 months ago
Sabah is facing its worst flood crisis in years — six districts declared disaster zones, thousands displaced, livelihoods washed away and more than a dozen individuals to date, including children - reported dead after a staggering number of landslides.
This Malaysia Day week, Niaga Spotlight speaks with Saizal Pinjaman, Director of the Centre for Economic Development & Policy at UMS, on how climate, governance, and economics collide — and what it will take to break Sabah’s costly cycle of disaster and recovery.
This Malaysia Day week, Niaga Spotlight speaks with Saizal Pinjaman, Director of the Centre for Economic Development & Policy at UMS, on how climate, governance, and economics collide — and what it will take to break Sabah’s costly cycle of disaster and recovery.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Nyaga Spotlight with me Tamina Kaosji. Nyaga Spotlight takes us to the
00:13week in economic analysis and future affairs. Now today on analysis our spotlight is on the
00:18Sabah floods and counting the cost. Malaysia Day was of course this week though of course
00:23celebrations in Sabah were cancelled as six districts are underwater and the state is
00:28battling its deadliest flood and landslide crisis in nearly 30 years. As of earlier yesterday 3,168
00:37people from 892 households were sheltering in 27 relief centres across 128 kampungs.
00:43The hardest hit districts Penampang, Buffett, Papar, Mambakut, Putatan, Sipidang and Tawau are in chaos.
00:51Roads have been cut off, power and clean water supplies disrupted and entire communities isolated.
00:57The death toll stands at roughly 13 including seven children with reports of families trapped
01:02by sudden landslides. For the first time in decades Sabah's storm season isn't just a
01:07humanitarian disaster, it is also an economic shockwave. Now rail services from Buffett-Tenum
01:13are suspended, rural supply routes have collapsed and cold chain logistics for food and medicine
01:19are also breaking down. Now this is also of course happening in a state where 19.7% of households
01:25already live in absolute poverty. When the poorest lose their homes, their livestock and their only
01:30income streams, every ringgit of loss multiplies, deepening Sabah's structural vulnerabilities.
01:36Today on Niagara Spotlight we cut through the noise to ask, why are these floods worsening year after year?
01:42What are the hidden costs from lost work hours to destroyed infrastructure that aren't showing up in
01:48the headlines or the CPI, the consumer price index? And most importantly, how do we fund
01:53long-term resilience instead of paying for the same relief every time monsoon season comes around?
01:59Joining us online for this interview is Saizal Pinjaman, director of the Center for Economic Development and Policy at
02:06University Malaysia, Sabah. He'll help us unpack Sabah's flood economics from land use policies and climate finance to the urgent
02:13reforms needed to protect Sabah's most vulnerable communities and safeguard its economic future. A very good morning to you Jaisaizal, how are you doing today?
02:20A very good morning to you Jaisaizal, how are you doing today? Thank you so much for making time to join us for this timely interview.
02:25Good morning Tahmin and thank you very much for contacting me.
02:29Absolutely. So let's get started off with the discussion Jaisaizal. Now, of course, when the waters rise, there are not only lives at risk, it's also the foundation of Sabah's economy that has to be looked at.
02:41So can you perhaps give us an economic perspective on the snapshot of the flood crisis? We know, of course, there are an increasing number of evacuees, the districts which are affected, but also is there any estimate out there of immediate financial losses to households, small businesses,
02:59and also local governments as we're looking at it?
03:04Well, at this stage, there is no official public estimate of the total immediate financial losses from homes, small businesses or local government costs for the recent Sabah flood.
03:16What we know is that NADMA has approved an immediate allocation of $10 million to assist flood victims, and in addition to about $11 million already channeled through the state government for immediate repairs to basic facilities in the affected areas.
03:32And each evacuated family head is reportedly receiving 1,000 ringgit of BWI or Bantuan Wang Issan for Malaysian citizens, and next to kin for those deceased receive around 10,000 ringgit.
03:47And in terms of housing, if we use official government repair and rebuilding cost benchmarks, the damage of the affected families would already be in the range of perhaps between 7 to 10 million.
04:00And meanwhile, for small businesses, which are the lifeline of Sabah's local economy, the best estimate is around perhaps 700 to 1,000 SMEs are disrupted, including grocery shops, eateries, car wash shops, poker stalls.
04:17So based on the typical per firm losses of up to 30,000 ringgit for floods, this point to another tens of millions of ringgits in damages.
04:27And in terms of infrastructure side, we already know that Sabah electricity transmission towers damage, and it left over 230,000 consumers without power.
04:38So several roads in Penampang, Papar, and Beaufort have been cut off by a landslide, which not only adds tens of millions of ringgit in repair costs, but also disrupt access to school, clinics, and local businesses.
04:53These are immediate fiscal shocks for state and, of course, for the local government.
04:58And when we combine household, SMEs, and infrastructure, the immediate economic footprint for this disaster, I assume, would already be between 40 million to 90 million.
05:10And I believe it will grow as agriculture and public facilities are fully assessed.
05:16Absolutely. So that is clearly painting for us a very sober picture.
05:20And thank you for being so clear around that.
05:22Those power supplies earlier, which have knocked out supply for perhaps in excess of 250k users, the Beaufort-Tenum rail suspended.
05:30So all this is pointing to a clean shock to logistics and also the price of essential goods in flood-hit districts.
05:38There's also, of course, then the hidden bill.
05:41There were actually 122 disaster incidents which were logged across the first eight days when the floods occurred.
05:48Key trunk roads have also been blocked.
05:50For example, Jalan Papar to Kota Kinabalu.
05:54Now, there's also lost worker hours, inventory spoilage, and all of these estimates, which can also quantify GDP-adjacent damage.
06:03Perhaps not now, but maybe in the next quarter, we'll really be able to tell more numbers.
06:08Thank you for the brief overview.
06:10Moving along, Chaisaizal, let's talk about looking at the five-year structural drivers and also economic costs of inaction.
06:19So some research which has been carried out by UMS and DID, the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, highlights drainage density, land use, slope, and soil as critical factors in the Moyog and Penampang basins in particular.
06:35From an economist's point of view, Chaisaizal, how have land use changes since 2020 especially impacted not only the flood intensity but also public expenditure?
06:46True, Chaisaizal, since 2020, the Moyog and Penampang basins have seen steady urban expansion and land clearing on hill slopes.
06:59So build-up areas have increased while vegetated and open spaces have declined.
07:04So the effect is more frequent inundation in downstream areas, and of course, the effect is more floods.
07:11So this intensification translates directly into fiscal costs.
07:16So the local government spent repeatedly on repairing roads, schools, and other utilities after each flood.
07:23And on top of that, the federal government, as we know, has already identified that Saabasi requires around 800 million ringgit in unfinished comprehensive flood mitigation works.
07:36So in short, land use change is making each flood more expensive to clean up and, of course, is enforcing government into costly cycle of relief and repair rather than one-off prevention.
07:49And in terms of agriculture, the flood damage failed more often.
07:55Trops are destroyed, soils eroded, and replanting costs rises.
08:00So national figures show that agricultural losses from flood have run into tens of millions of ringgit in recent years, including Saabasi.
08:08So for smallholders, this is not just an environmental issue but a direct economic shock that will reduce their household income.
08:17And, of course, in terms of insurance, if we can include that, data also show that after 2021 flood in Peninsula Malaysia, insurance paid out billions of ringgit, and the demand for flood cover increased.
08:33So as flood in Saabasi grow more intense and more frequent, claim for damaged homes, vehicles, and SMEs or small business premises are bound to rise as well.
08:43Yet flood insurance coverage remains low, especially in this state, where it means that many households and SMEs are still bearing losses out of their own pocket.
08:54So that combination, raising claims for those insured and raising costs out of pocket for those uninsured, is another economic burden created by the land use change.
09:05Clearly, I mean, development also does come with its costs, and perhaps referring a little bit back to the cycle, the 2014 Panampang flood.
09:15At that point in time, it affected around 40,000 people across 70 villages.
09:19It does remain a benchmark for economic risk analysis.
09:23Perhaps, Jaisa, what are the cost-benefit trade-offs of prevention versus repeated disaster relief spending, having a more forward-looking agenda in this area?
09:35Okay, so in terms of prevention costs, I believe that the completing or the completion of flood mitigation project is estimated to be at around RM800 million under the current federal plan.
09:52And this is a significant sum, of course, but it is a one-time capital investment spread over several years.
09:59So preventive measures also include stricter land use control, slope stabilization, and maintaining riparian buffers, which cost less per year but reduce long-term exposure.
10:10So that is in terms of prevention costs.
10:12In terms of costs of repeated itself, on the other hand, each major flood now costs tens of millions of ringgit in housing damage as a misdisruption, agricultural losses, and, of course, in terms of infrastructure repairs.
10:27So based on the December 2021 flood in peninsular Malaysia, for example, it generated loss to be around RM6 billion nationally.
10:39So even this current Sabas disaster may already be costing RM40 to RM90 million, as I mentioned earlier, in its early phase.
10:47So if you repeat that every few years, the cumulative bill easily overtakes the one-off prevention costs.
10:54And the benefit side of prevention is that it avoids damages, it avoids uninterrupted businesses as well, or it leads to uninterrupted business activity in lower insurance claim.
11:08They also protect livelihood, and that is very important, which is harder to price but critical for welfare.
11:14And in terms of cost-benefit term, the net present value of prevention is strongly positive because avoided losses compound year after year.
11:27And additionally also, landslide mortality this week was the worst in decades, coming as a fact of soils being supersaturated, making even modest slopes risky.
11:37This is clear evidence that land use and extreme rain is clearly an economic risk system, not just a weather blip.
11:45Moving along from there into looking at the Malaysia Day optics and fiscal priorities in disaster response.
11:51So Malaysia Day events were cancelled in Sabah to focus on flood relief.
11:55How can the state government, Jaisal, further signal clear fiscal priorities to the public,
12:01balancing symbolic celebrations with, of course, the urgent spending needs currently?
12:07Yeah, there are no publicly available figures showing exactly how much Sabah spent on Malaysia Day celebration annually.
12:17But based on comparable cultural event budget and the logistics involved,
12:22a reasonable estimate would be somewhere between $1 million to $2 million, possibly more depending on scale.
12:29Thus, I fully support the state's decision to cancel Malaysia Day celebration this year,
12:33as it was a responsible move that sends a strong message about fiscal priorities for the state.
12:40When hundreds of families are displayed and key infrastructure is damaged,
12:44every ringgit must go into relief, repair, and recovery, the three are.
12:48And I believe the state can signal fiscal priorities by being transparent about the reallocation of funds.
12:55For example, if 1 to 2 million year mark for celebration is diverted into evacuation centres, school repairs, or agricultural support,
13:05the government should say so openly, and I believe they are currently doing that.
13:10So this is the kind of reporting that helps the public see the direct trade-off between what was sacrificed and what was gained.
13:17Clearly, and also perhaps the OPEX that has been diverted away from Malaysia Day could feed into maybe 90-day deliverables,
13:26kilometres desilted, perhaps retention ponds commissioned and completed, high-risk slopes stabilised.
13:32It's really important to have this sort of a transparent, ongoing accounting of funds that are being used.
13:40Thanks very much for the perspective so far, Chai Saizong.
13:42We take a short break now on Niagara Spotlight.
13:44We'll be right back with the rest of the interview.
13:46Don't go anywhere.
13:47Welcome back to Niagara Spotlight, still with me Tamina Kaosji.
14:01And today, of course, in conjunction with Malaysia Day, we have a spotlight on Sabah, floods,
14:07and looking at the cost and what actually is happening on ground.
14:11Joining me online for this very timely and interesting discussion is Chai Saiz Alpinjaman,
14:16who's director with the Centre for Economic Development and Policy with University of Malaysia Sabah.
14:21Going back straight into the discussion, Chai Saizal, let's look at now cost of living shock channels.
14:26Now, floods in particular disrupt logistics, supply chains, especially in rural Sabah,
14:31where transport networks are rather fragile.
14:34Now, while Malaysia's national inflation was very stable at just about 1.2% year-on-year in July 2025,
14:42food away from home, FAFH, remains high at around 4.3% year-on-year.
14:50So, some comments on this with regard to looking at how temporary road closures and crop losses in flood-affected districts
14:57then create localized price spikes that may not necessarily be captured in our national CPI averages.
15:05Okay, yeah. Flood in Sabah, they don't just damage property.
15:14They also disrupt the supply chains.
15:17And Sabah's economy is far more vulnerable to logistics shocks
15:22because it depends on one main route that connects the east coast of Sabah and the west coast of Sabah.
15:29In Peninsula Malaysia, if one way or one highway is closed,
15:33there are alternative roads that allow goods to be rerouted.
15:37But in Sabah, when a landslide blocks a key road in Rana, for example,
15:41there are a very few alternatives that connect the east coast and the west coast of the state.
15:47So, supplies are either delayed by hours or they are detoured over long and difficult terrain
15:53or, in some cases, cut off entirely.
15:55So, this creates what economists call a supply bottleneck in affected districts.
16:01Then, local traders may raise their price in short term because supply is constrained in transport costs surge.
16:09And on top of that, crop losses also add another layer.
16:13When beddy fields, for example, or vegetable plots are inundated,
16:18local supply shrinks and replacement crops must be brought from other areas or perhaps even imported.
16:24And that adds both time and cost and further inflating prices at the village and the district level.
16:32And in terms of service disruption, it also intensifies these pressures.
16:37In Sandakan, for example, water supply interruption forced households to buy bottled water for tank deliverage,
16:44and it immediately raising living costs.
16:47In Tawau is another example, where transmission tower damages left hundreds of thousands of consumers without power.
16:54So, businesses and households had to rely on diesel generators, we call it genset in Sabah, which are costly to run.
17:04So, for small eateries, food processes, and cold storage businesses,
17:09the power cut directly translates into small inventory and higher operating costs,
17:14which quickly pass on consumers through higher menu prices.
17:19So, all of this shows how fragile the supply chain are in Sabah,
17:24and that translates into the price side, especially in several districts that are affected.
17:32Clearly.
17:33And also, these sharp price spikes in essentials like bottled water, etc.,
17:37are not necessarily then reflected back in our national averages,
17:41but it does cause a localized impact.
17:43What targeted subsidies or perhaps microgrants would be most useful or effective
17:50to stabilize such local economies in this immediate aftermath then, Jay Saisal?
17:56Okay.
17:57I believe the first priority should be the targeted subsidies or cash transfers,
18:03especially in the harder seat district.
18:05And temporary food vouchers, for example, for displaced households can push in immediate shops.
18:11And the Bantuan Wang Ehsan, or BWI, is, of course, effective because they let households make their own spending decision
18:20while restoring some loss for chasing power.
18:24And in terms of microgrants for small businesses,
18:28I believe that targeting microgrants of perhaps between $3,000 to $10,000
18:33can help workers or grocery shops to replace their small stock.
18:39Repairing their equipment or cover rent utilities while income is interrupted.
18:45And for the agricultural recovery support,
18:49I believe that for smallholders, subsidies should be directed into inputs,
18:56including seeds, fertilizer, or livestock feed and farm tools to get production restarted quickly.
19:04A replanting subsidy or a direct input, I believe, is more useful
19:09because it ensures that the money goes straight into restoring output.
19:15And in terms of utilities and logistic relief,
19:17where water in power outages occur, microgrants to pay water tankers or to cover diesel fees
19:26can help SMEs in households bridge the gap until services are restored.
19:32And this prevents businesses from collapsing under utility costs
19:36and keeps supply chain functioning in the state.
19:40The supply chain clearly is actually experiencing a cold chain break
19:44and also lots of last-mile premiums.
19:46So this, of course, raises clear preference for temporary freight subsidies
19:51and also stock buffers and all of these flood-related belts.
19:55Not also mentioning the fact that prolonged closures throttle labour supply
20:00for schools, for the workforce as well.
20:03So moving on from there, looking at election season governance and budget credibility,
20:08Sabah State Assembly also must dissolve by 11th November this year
20:12with polling required by early December at the latest.
20:16The Election Commission has denied any fixed date.
20:20Now, with elections also looming on the state,
20:22what realistic flood mitigation promises can be funded
20:25within perhaps a single state budget cycle, firstly?
20:31Yeah, as we know that the state election is just around the corner.
20:35And I think for the state, promises that are not just work technically,
20:40but budget-friendly or budget-credible, cost-effective,
20:44and welfare-enhancing within one year is very important for the state.
20:49So this is because large-scale flood schemes for the state require federal funding
20:55and it takes a very long time to complete.
20:58So what the state can realistically deliver is a single-budget cycle,
21:03in a single-budget cycle, is a smaller intervention
21:06with high economic or welfare return relative to their costs.
21:10So first, the targeted spending on critical green and covered producers
21:15are an outsized benefit because it reduces recurrent losses
21:19in densely populated neighbourhoods, especially in the urban area
21:23like Kota Kinabalu, Tawau, or Sandakan.
21:26And the cost is modest compared to the repeated household
21:29and SME damages avoided.
21:32Second, the state can also fund for slope stabilization
21:37at non-landslide sites to prevent road closures
21:41that otherwise disrupt our already fragile supply chain.
21:45So economically, this is about preserving market access.
21:50So when truck roads are severe, food prices spike locally
21:54and the SMEs are losing their business days.
21:58And households, of course, face high living costs.
22:02So a few million ringgits spent on stabilization
22:04can prevent tens of millions in welfare losses.
22:08And apart from that, the budget on basic early warning system
22:15can also be a good option for the state
22:18because the installation of rainfall and river gorges costs little.
22:24But the information they generate have huge social value
22:28because it reduces fatalities, it guides evacuation,
22:33and minimizes losses to assets and crops.
22:37And apart from that, committing to routine distilting
22:40and riverbank maintenance is also very important
22:44because economically, this reduces volatility in fiscal account.
22:48It's cheaper to budget for predictable maintenance
22:51than to repeat drone on emergency fund for post-flood repairs.
22:58And of course, apart from that,
23:00publishing a monthly flood resilience scorecard
23:02also improves budget credibility.
23:06So if I can add on, if we can look into examples
23:10that have been taken abroad, China, for example,
23:14implemented what is called as Sponge City,
23:17where it is a pilot project that shows immediate effect
23:24in reducing damages.
23:26And apart from that, Philippines, for example,
23:28have what is known as Project NOAA,
23:31which demonstrated high return on investment
23:33from hazard mapping and early warning.
23:36So all these are examples of government
23:38using relatively modest short-term intervention
23:41to achieve high economic or welfare impact.
23:46And also, at the same time,
23:48there are certain actions, though,
23:50which must be jointly financed with perhaps federal agencies,
23:53especially looking at illegal logging,
23:55enforcement and catchment rehabilitation.
23:58Some ideas on what the collaboration needs to look like
24:02so that perhaps next year, when we're looking at 2026,
24:06we're hopefully not dealing with the same type of inundation
24:09and disaster zones across Sabah.
24:14Yeah.
24:15So as we know, forestry and catchment management
24:17fall under the state list,
24:19and Sabah has constitutional authority
24:21over forest reserve timber concession enforcement.
24:25But the financing burden can be shed
24:27to achieve outcomes that benefit both the state and the federal.
24:30So illegal logging enforcement, for example,
24:34is resource intensive.
24:36So while Sabah-lead, federal agencies like MACC or NRECC
24:41can provide complementary roles in funding
24:44and monitoring as well as technical support.
24:47In terms of reforestation and catchment rehabilitation,
24:50we have a similar situation.
24:52There are, or these are, capital-intensive programs
24:55which long-term horizons.
24:57And while Sabah has authority to implement,
25:01federal development grants make the financing sustainable.
25:05And we have done that under the 12th Malaysia Plan,
25:09where federal finance reforestation
25:11was carried out by state agencies.
25:15So economically, this is justified
25:16because cashment restoration reduces future flood damages
25:20and it stabilizes with the supply and preserve diversity.
25:23So the most efficient arrangement is clear.
25:27The state continues to enforce and implement,
25:30but the federal government co-finances
25:32through structured budget channels.
25:35And also clearly, a lot of procurement disciplines,
25:38such as fast-tracking works that name choke points,
25:41which are currently been identified,
25:43with also transparent tender logs
25:45and clerk of work photos, perhaps.
25:47Moving deeper into the conversation on equity and poverty
25:51and designing inclusive relief.
25:53Now, Sabah does have Malaysia's highest absolute poverty rate,
25:56roughly around 19.7% as of 2022.
26:00From an economic lens, Jaisaizal,
26:02what policy changes are required urgently
26:04so that cash transfers, these evacuation logistics
26:08and also business recovery grants
26:09reach the most needy?
26:12Meaning, of course, rural women,
26:14indigenous communities and also elderly residents
26:17without leakages or any delay.
26:22Yeah, the state already runs several initiatives,
26:26including the EKC registry
26:28to identify poor households
26:31and the DWI under NADMA Disaster Cache A.
26:36Yeah, three challenges persist, I assume.
26:40First is targeting is incomplete
26:42because indigenous communities
26:44often underrepresented in official data,
26:48reducing the fiscal impact of transfers.
26:51The second issue is delivery is slowed
26:53by poor banking access
26:55and patchy rural connectivity
26:57because, as we know,
26:58as they are disconnected,
27:00they cannot go to the nearest town, for example.
27:03So this creates delays and perhaps leakages.
27:07And evacuaries face delays in receiving assistance
27:09if they have no bank account
27:11or have to rely on manual distribution
27:13at bank counters.
27:14So the third issue is business recovery support
27:19for small firms is tied up
27:21in heavy documentation and slow approval,
27:24meaning micro-entrepreneurs,
27:26especially women,
27:28often miss the critical window
27:29for working capital.
27:31So policy improvement,
27:33I believe, should therefore be focusing
27:35on tightening access and speed.
27:40So an integrated registry
27:41that combined the E-Case
27:43with village-level validation
27:45would ensure vulnerable households
27:47are not left out.
27:49And apart from that,
27:51cash transfer should flow
27:53through multiple payment rails,
27:55either directly through bank transfer,
27:58check or cash and overs,
28:00or perhaps e-wallet,
28:01which women in the household
28:03set as the default recipients
28:05to maximize their welfare effect.
28:07And evacuation logistics
28:09need to be pre-arranged
28:11by contracting either local boat operators
28:14or 4x4 cooperated for team
28:18before the monsoon,
28:19while elderly households
28:21can be tagged by priority evacuation
28:24or for priority evacuation
28:26to reduce delays
28:27in past flood operation.
28:29And to strengthen
28:30the business resilience in the state,
28:32a parametric grant system
28:35which have been implemented
28:38by several countries
28:39can also be introduced
28:40where microgrants
28:42perhaps between 3,000 to 5,000
28:44can be automatically dispersed
28:47to women and indigenous entrepreneurs
28:49in affected areas
28:50within a few days,
28:52followed by a simple verification
28:54of business reopening.
28:55So importantly,
28:56this should be paired
28:57with a streamlined
28:58or online application platform
29:00to get assistance,
29:02for example,
29:03for both individuals and SMEs.
29:05So this design
29:06with mobile-friendly features
29:08so beneficiaries
29:09can apply quickly
29:11and track status transparently
29:12without burdensome paperwork.
29:15So we have various
29:16government-developed apps
29:19that we can utilize
29:20for such streamlined
29:22online application.
29:23And clearly that would be
29:26one of the most pressing needs
29:27right now
29:28because poorer households
29:29of course lack
29:30the sufficient amount
29:31of savings and insurance
29:32which makes them
29:33far more vulnerable
29:34in this immediate aftermath
29:35of the flood risk
29:37and disaster.
29:38Thank you so much
29:39for your insights,
29:40JSISL.
29:41It's been truly insightful.
29:43Now we've heard hard truths
29:45from JSISL Punjab.
29:46The floods are not just
29:47a weather story.
29:48They are a systemic
29:49economic failure
29:50decades in the making.
29:51Unchecked land use changes,
29:53disappearing forests,
29:54around 20,600 hectares
29:57lost last year alone
29:58in Sabah
29:58and unplanned urbanization
30:00have turned routine rains
30:01into catastrophic floods
30:03and deadly landslides.
30:04What was made clear
30:06were these points.
30:07Repeated devastation
30:08is eroding productivity,
30:09supply chains have been severed,
30:11labor's out for days,
30:13inflation surging
30:14in cut-off areas.
30:16Now also poor households,
30:17Sabah's 19.7%
30:19absolute poverty,
30:20they have to absorb the worst
30:21with no backups,
30:23no buffer and no insurance.
30:25The fix, of course,
30:26is investment,
30:27not just sympathy
30:28and emergency aid.
30:29This means early warning systems,
30:31land use enforcement,
30:33forest protection
30:34and also potential
30:35parametric insurance
30:37to convert recurring
30:38relief spending
30:39into resilience capital.
30:42Election season or not,
30:43the test is real.
30:44Will Shab, Sabah,
30:45Sif shift resources
30:46from reaction to prevention?
30:48Because every ringgit
30:49spent rebuilding
30:50the same losses
30:50is one more ringgit
30:52that Sabah cannot afford.
30:53That's all we have time for today.
30:55We'll see you again next week
30:56with more economic analysis
30:57and insights.
30:58I'm Tamina Kowstri
30:59signing off for now.
31:00Here's to a productive week ahead.
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