Bernama 3 Oct 15;
KUCHING, Oct 3 (Bernama) -- No individual or group in Malaysia has plans to initiate legal action against companies in Indonesia deemed to be responsible for the current haze, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nancy Shukri.
She said those with such an intention would need to "first study the international law in terms of our jurisdiction".
Nancy was asked to comment on the initiative by the Singapore government to sue five Indonesian companies for allegedly causing the haze which has also badly affected the island state.
She said the issue could be quite debatable because to proceed, there needed to be strong evidence that any company being sued was really responsible and was causing the haze in a specific area.
"We have yet to see the success of the Singapore action. It is definitely going to be very challenging," she said.
According to Nancy, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia were always having discussions on the haze problem.
"I hope something positive can come out of these," she said after officiating at the "Quality Day" celebration of Sekolah Menengah Teknik Sejingkat.
In her speech, she reminded students that technical and vocational education and training (TVET) would give them more opportunities to secure employment as the country progressed towards achieving high-income society status by 2020.
She said that out of the 1.5 million new jobs created in many programmes under the 11th Malaysia Plan, 60 per cent would be based on TVET qualifications.
"In Sarawak, the Sarawak Corridor of Renewal Energy (SCORE) will generate some 1.6 million jobs. These too are going to be mainly technical in specifications," she said.
-- BERNAMA
