Sipadan three spots away from qualifying

Kota Kinabalu: Pulau Sipadan moved up to 14th place from 17th spot in the search for seven new wonders of nature being carried out via Internet voting.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun, said Sipadan is now only three spots away from qualifying for the final rounds of voting.

"(But) I am confident that we will be able to achieve our goal to be among the 10 best islands in the world," he said in a text read by Assistant Minister Bolkiah Ismail at the launching of "Vote for Sipadan" campaign at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), here, Thursday.

To qualify, he said Sipadan must be among the 11 finalists under the island category in the online competition.

So, to achieve the goal, he said the Ministry is targeting students from public and private institutes of higher learning especially those with e-mail accounts.

At the same time, he said they are also approaching officers in both the State and Federal governments.

He said they have requested that the State and Federal governments inform their agencies and departments to brief their staff on the voting procedure for Sipadan.

Bolkiah said he has been entrusted to exploit the market in the peninsula and to target students and Federal employees.

Next week, he said he will be meeting with Tourism Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen to discuss the launching of the campaign in the peninsula in a big way.

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