Screengrab shows McFeeters (bottom photo, second left) interacting with Petros chief executive officer Datuk Sauu Kakok (top photo, top left) and his team during a session run in connection with the US Ambassador’s virtual tour to Sarawak.
KUCHING (Oct 2): The progress and milestones achieved by Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) have impressed US Ambassador to Malaysia Brian D McFeeters, who describes the corporation as ‘a very unique state-level energy company’.
He regards Petros as amongst the programmes that signify the intention of maintaining and renewing the ties between the US and Sarawak not only through the Embassy, but also in business and academia, as well as other connections.
“I’m impressed with Petros – it’s a’ very unique state-level energy company.
“They have a lot of innovative programmes (and) excellent connections.
“I think the way we would follow up (is through running) students’ exchanges, putting Sarawak entities in touch with things like the National Renewable Energy Lab (and) university researches, and just try to put the experts on both sides and see what happens after that,” he said during a virtual ‘Sarawak Press Roundtable with US Ambassador to Malaysia’ held via Google Meet on Friday.
The session was run in conjunction with McFeeters’ five-day virtual trip to Sarawak, which kicked off on Monday.
On the Sarawak tour, the US Ambassador said he had a great meeting with people who had participated in US exchange programmes, which he expressed the Embassy’s intention of wanting ‘all these to be ongoing connections’.
“We’ve found a lot of enthusiasm in maintaining and renewing the ties with the United States. The outcome is ‘let’s do this together and let’s renew this partnership’.
“We also talked to Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC) about them having programmes related to renewable energy, and wanting to be connected to the Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. So those are the kinds of connections that we make,” he said.
McFeeters also pointed out the fight against Covid-19 as amongst the US Government’s priority in Asean and around the world ‘right now’.
In July this year, the US delivered one million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to Malaysia, which was amongst the first group of countries to receive vaccines under the commitment pledged by President Joe Biden of sharing US vaccine supply around the globe.
The US is the largest financial donor to COVAX, the global vaccine-sharing partnership, with a US$4-billion financial pledge through 2022.