Sarawak Energy Bhd’s Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Torstein Dale Sjotveit, has won the ‘Outstanding Entrepreneurship Award’ in the oil and gas, mining and energy category.
It said Sjotveit received the award at the Asia-Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards (APEA) Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) 2014, which was held in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, recently.
“The award recognises Sjotveit’s notable role in transforming the state-owned energy company into a modern and robust organisation to meet the state’s development needs, particularly the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy agenda.
“This (development needs) also include the commitment to deliver a 10-fold increase in the state’s electrical output in just over a decade,” it said.
APEA is a regional recognition programme for outstanding entrepreneurs across Asia. It is also a platform for business leaders and leading entrepreneurs in the region to network and share their knowledge.
Will they make him ‘Human Rights Defender’ next?
‘Datuk’ Torstein has been the barking dog for Taib in recent years, driving through an insane and illegal programme to dam up the natural rivers of the state.
Human rights and proper procedures have been swept aside, as SEB with the viking at its helm has forged ahead to do Taib’s bidding.
A secretive bond of RM15billion has been raised at the public’s expense to pay for the project – a fact Sjotveit has sought to deny – and native communities have been tricked, bullied and in the end forced out of their homes by rising waters.
Now the Murum Penan are stranded in their new ‘model villages’ utterly dependent on SEB’s food supplies and limited cash allowances of less than a quarter of the minimum wage per month. Once they had the whole forest to feed from.
No wonder at Torstein’s own Hydropower conference the head of the International Hydropower Association acknowledged Sarawak’s Dams have a “legacy of problems”.
If entrepreneurship consists of illegal abuse of power and the corrupt handing of major contracts to companies owned by your political bosses, then yes TDS deserved this award.