Malaysia All Set To Join League Of Eco-Product Economies

MIRI (Sarawak, Malaysia), Nov 8 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is now ready to join the league of economies that have made eco-business survivable through government's direct promotion of eco-products in the country, Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Peter Chin said on Tuesday. He said his ministry in collaboration with the Finance Ministry was developing a set of green procurement guidelines to serve as a reference for suppliers and purchasers on environmental-friendly products and services. "We will speed up the criteria documents to increase the list of eco-products or services," he said when opening the Curtin University Science and Engineering International Conference. Chin said his ministry would also provide technical and advisory services to raise local entrepreneurs' compliance on eco-labelling criteria, increasing programmes on capacity-building and awareness on the importance of environmentally friendly products and services. "Currently, we are finalising the implementation mechanism for the national eco-labelling programme," he said. Speaking to reporters later, Chin said Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia Bhd (Sirim) would be involved in working out the eco- labelling criteria and standardisation of eco-products. While it would take some time before eco-labelling requirements could be enforced, he said that it would be covering both the domestically-produced and imported products. On the conference themed "Innovative Green Technology for Sustainable Development", Chin said that it was relevant to address the escalating energy needs worldwide. "Malaysia is no exception, with its fast-growing industrial and commercial sectors catering to the needs of its increasing population and contributing to its economic growth," he said. Chin said the conference augured well with the plan to make Miri as the northern education hub in Sarawak. "It provides an excellent forum to share research and development findings and initiate further collaborative researches (among participating researchers)," added Chin, who is also Miri member of parliament. -- BERNAMA Malaysia