Dato’ Hamzah Hussin came into office as SEDA Malaysia CEO on Feb 22, 2021. Before this, he obtained his experience as Senior Private Secretary to ministers and deputy ministers in various ministries, namely the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Prime Minister’s Department, Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (KeTSA).
There is no doubt his understanding of management, administration, strategic planning, and government policies are valuable attributes and of great relevance to Malaysia’s Sustainable Energy (SE) agenda, whereby he could provide insights in shaping SEDA’s future programmes and activities.
He obtained a Bachelor of Economics (Analytical Economics) from University of Malaya in 1999. He began his career in the Administrative and Diplomatic Services in 2003 as an Assistant Secretary of Finance Division in the Finance Division, Ministry of Education, and served in various ministries and district administrations.
Hamzah also has significant experience in land administration and management, as well as managing development projects. In 2014, he was appointed District Officer (DO) of Kerian, Perak, for two years.
He made history when he was appointed the first DO for the newly established district of Bagan Datuk, Perak, in May 2016. During his two years tenure in Bagan Datuk, he was responsible for implementing and coordinating public and private development projects with a total value of more than RM4bil.
He took over as CEO when Malaysia and the world were facing severe economic and healthcare challenges due to the pandemic. Hamzah aspires to enhance the relationship with relevant authorities in getting their support on RE development. He also aimed to bring SEDA Malaysia to new heights by strengthening the sustainable energy agenda that includes RE, EE, and currently in the plan — Solarpreneur programme.
He told @green about SEDA Malaysia’s plan on issues that will help shape Malaysia’s energy future.
On the Renewable Energy Transition Roadmap (RETR) 2035
We are finalising the RETR 2035. RETR 2035 is developed to formulate strategies towards achieving the government’s committed RE target by 2025 and develop possible RE scenarios for 2035. After firming up the direction and framework of the RETR, SEDA initiated the study by organising a series of engagement sessions with relevant authorities, organisations and industry players in preparing the required input.
We believe the publication of the RETR 2035 will be most timely to demonstrate a socially just energy transition towards a more environmentally sustainable future. When an energy transition is socially just, it embodies inclusivity and ensures wealth is equitably distributed. RETR 2035 also intends to guide principles in achieving national RE aspirations and the strategic pillars towards directing initiatives on the viable path.
The roadmap is hoped to provide a clear direction of transition from fossil-fuel dependent to RE. Through this roadmap as well, we expect the government could give total commitment to the RE agenda moving forward.
Recovery and Covid-19
Even as Malaysia is still recovering from the pandemic, there is a call for a global green recovery. Last year had been exciting and challenging. Malaysia and the rest of the world were caught by surprise. The Covid-19 pandemic coupled with the Movement Control Order (MCO) is already reshaping our way of life. Our perspective of life may never be the same.
However, suppose we are looking at the RE shares. In that case, the installed capacity sees a general increasing trend across sectors in 2020 compared to 2019 (refer to Table 1).
While the trend might not be reflected in the number of jobs from 2019 to 2020 across sectors, the cumulative number of jobs saw a positive inclination in 2020 compared to 2019. This shows that despite the lockdown and Covid-19 impact on the economy, the RE sector showed resilient growth during this challenging time, indicating that the industry has immense potential to realise further.
From the RE industry’s perspective, local photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers and assemblers (LMA) and service providers were affected by the pandemic. The total number of jobs in Malaysia’s PV industry dropped from 18,343 to 15,180, with a significant number of LMA’s having ceased production.
Nonetheless, the number of Registered PV Service Providers (RPVSP) increased from 2019 to 2020 from 128 service providers to 157. As of April 2021, the RPVSP is reported at 161 and is estimated to reach 190 by the end of the year. One of the driving forces behind this growth could be attributed to the continuation of the NEM programme, whereby the programme provided a steady source of income for the RPVSP.
RPVSP is responsible for installing solar PV whereby they must comply with the safety and work etiquette guidelines on top of ensuring that the environment is not affected because of the installation. They are also required to achieve the goal set by SEDA Malaysia (if any) and contribute to the development of the NEM programme or any RE programme under SEDA Malaysia.
Leveraging on the various potential in the RE industry, one of our plans is to make RE the New Economy Drive. We are planning to introduce a Solarpreneur programme where we develop young entrepreneurs in the solar industry to assist with deploying solar projects.
This programme will create more skilled and non-skilled jobs with an estimated impact on the economy amounted to RM374.5mil in 20 years.
On shaping the future
SEDA Malaysia is aware that it has a vital role to shape the future of energy in this country. I am fully committed to render my utmost support to the sustainable energy agenda in Malaysia.
With the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (KeTSA) and various organisations’ support, I firmly believe that the Authority could facilitate the energy transition to better future generations.
