Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba is making a two-day state visit to Malaysia from Thursday. The proposal to make Malaysia, particularly Sarawak, as a new energy hub in the region, is expected to be among the key topics that will be discussed, Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said.
According to Bernama, Ibrahim said that the new plan, led by Sarawak premier Johari Tun Openg, is a critical initiative in the energy transition sector.
“We hope this discussion will chart the course for Malaysia, particularly Sarawak, to become a regional energy hub,” the prime minister said as he was officiating the Malaysia Economic Forum. There have been interests in setting up hydropower plant as well as hydrogen hubs in Sarawak. One has been proposed by Sumitomo Corp, which is partnering with Eneos and SEDC Energy, a unit of Sarawak Economic Development Corp, to produce green hydrogen for export to Japan via a project called H2ornbill. MUFG is financial adviser. A second scheme is the H2biscus project, which is led by Samsung, Lotte and Posco. They aim to produce green and blue hydrogen as well as ammonia. Sarawak is one of the proposed sites for carbon capture, utilisation and storage facilities.
