Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi, Federal Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister said that today there is no problem for the Sarawak Tourism Board to cooperate with Tourism Malaysia in promoting the state oversees.

At a press conference when asked on the level of cooperation between two tourism promotion agencies after Sarawak withdrew its representative in Tourism Malaysia board in 2017 “TM has always opened its doors to receive whatever proposals from STB in areas of cooperation. It is up to STB to cooperate with Tourism Malaysia. We can sit down and discuss things”.

Ketapi said in conjunction with the launch of VM2020, Tourism Malaysia has also organised an engagement session with the Sarawak tourism industry players and media representatives.

The event was to discuss efforts to promote tourism products in Sarawak, especially when the state was promoting Sarawak Tourism Campaign, starting of 2019.

Earlier on June 12, 2017, Sarawak withdrew its representative from the Malaysian Tourism Board with immediate effect, following the state’s disagreement with the federal government over the introduction of a new tourism tax.

The state government had revived then to withdraw the participation of representatives in the board depicting that it wasn’t necessary as it would duplicate the roles and function of STB.

Sarawak Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said that the federal government should respect the Malaysian agreement of 1963 while deciding such matters and had previously urged Putrajaya to defer the July 1, 2017 implementation of the new tourism tax for Sabah and Sarawak.