Source: The Borneo Post Sarawak

The award recipients posing for a group photo with Dr Rundi (centre, back row) and other guests.

BINTULU (Oct 13): Minister of Food Industries, Commodities and Regional Development Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom has challenged the teams under his ministry to deliver beyond their job expectations.

He reminded that to be in the ministry, there is no such thing as a 9am-to-5pm job, but it is an on-call job and they should be prepared to work anytime they are called for work. “Before you are even considered for the appreciation award or before being appreciated you have to do something beyond expectations.

“All of us including the ministers, we are assigned with something, tasked with something to do, we must be able to do beyond that,” he said during the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) appreciation ceremony 2022 at a hotel here on last night. He said in any assignment given, one has to work hard to deliver their utmost best and that would differentiate them being an excellent or mediocre worker.

Dr Rundi also shared his big vision in the ministry, saying the core business is to be able to transform the agricultural sector. He said they must be able to transform the small farming community to a group of people who engage in commercialisation.

“I have seen and observed this my entire life, more so when I was young, how our late parents dwelled into something so-called traditional, trying to survive doing subsistence farming. Here we are so-called younger generation, we are here to redeem the past and this is our redemption time,” he reminded. Thus, for this transformation to materialise, he added, it requires new technology and new ways of doing things.

“If the traditional way is effective and productive, yes, but if less, forget about it,” he said. Dr Rundi also pointed to the importance of food security for the state and the several initiatives that have and would be taken by the government to assist farmers using new ways of farming.

“We have to assist the farmers, for bigger anchor farmers they need tax relief, output incentives, small farmers need input incentives. I am allergic to subsidies because that is the reason for what we are today, because we will be hoping and hoping,” he said. Among those present at the dinner were Dr Rundi’s wife Datin Sri Loreta Sawot, Deputy Minister of Food Industries, Commodities and Regional Development Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Ismail, the ministry’s permanent secretary Datu Edwin Abit and wife Datin Elizabeth Noria George Mitol, Bintulu Resident Datu Jack Aman Luat, DVS Sarawak director Dr Adrian Susin Ambud and acting Agriculture Department director Dominic Chunggat.