Malaysia’s first green library gets private funds

That's it, says Yahya Hussin and he gets a chorus of agreement from Wong Vui Ying, director of Sabah Library, Azizah Dun, welfare minister and Jainab Ayid, an assistant minister in the ministry of resource development and information technology.

It is Malaysia’s first green library. But half of the 40m ringgit ($12.9m) of the cost of the Kota Kinabalu regional library has come from a private company, the Lahad Datu Water Supply Sendirian Berhad. It is also the first such building funded by the private sector, according to Deputy Chief Minister Yahya Hussin who launched it at a groundbreaking ceremony in Tanjung Aru today.

“This is a very good cooperation between the private sector and the government,” he said. The library is expected to be ready by 2015.

Like the Sabah art gallery, the library will turn to solar energy, harvest rain water and use materials that will not add to carbon dioxide emission to keep global warming in check.

Steven Tan, managing director of Lahad Datu Water Supply Sendirian Berhad, says the funding is part of his company’s corporate social responsibility. – Insight Sabah