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SABAH LAND DEVELOPMENT BOARD
About SLDB
DISCOVER THE STORY BEHIND Sabah Land Development Board
LKTNS was established in 1969 as one of the numerous statutory bodies under the Chief Minister’s Department, formed to implement Sabah’s rural development programme. From its inception (1969-1982), it has been one of the major governmental agencies entrusted with the development of state land, mainly via land development and re-settlement schemes. Originally tasked to implement crop diversification to decrease the state’s dependency on rubber, today the board is well known for its instrumental role in the rapid expansion of the oil palm industry. With its mandate “to act as a catalyst in transforming rural areas and improving well being among the rural population in Sabah through land consolidation by way of commercial cultivation and modern farming”, the Board has successfully developed 12 settlers land schemes for palm oil with a total area of 11,773 hectares and successfully resettled 2765 people in rural areas. Within this period all settler programmes are under the management umbrella of LKTNS.
Corporatisation of LKTNS
During the Sixth Malaysian Plan (1991-1996), In 1990, the SLDB became the largest plantation in Sabah with more than 60,000 ha of commercial oil palm estates, eight CPO mills and twelve settler areas of over 11,773 ha. By the time of the corporatisation of the LKTNS in November 1996, the SLDB has transferred eight CPO mills, 80,000 ha of fully-planted oil palm estates to a new commercial wing of Sabah state agency called the Sawit Kinabalu Bhd., (Source: Corporatisation Agreement between The State Government of Sabah, Sabah Land Development Board, Sawit Kinabalu Berhad and Borneo Samudera Sdn. Bhd.) whereas the other types of estates which were occupied with settlers known as the social lands were still left under the management of the LKTNS. These estates included 11,773 ha, and other LKTNS investments under the ‘residual LKTNS’ (rLKTNS). In fact, other assets are included, a share in the refinery mill Lahad Datu Edible Oil (LDEO), and some share holdings in Sapi Plantation (Nangoh Estate) with IOI and Unilever.
