The Sarawak Research and Development Council (SRDC) said the development of the centre was to ensure preparedness before any new outbreak and to spearhead the fight against future pandemics in Sarawak.

“The project is expected to commence immediately and the centre should be operational by 2024.

“The site is adjacent to the Sarawak Heart Centre to ensure a synergy between the two and to provide for the capacity to ramp up diagnostic and hospital bed capacity in the event of a pandemic, with the provision of space for a 1,000-bed field hospital,” it said.

Chief minister Abang Johari Openg, who is also the SRDC chairman, issued the directive to build the centre. He announced the plan on Nov 24 last year and it was approved by the Sarawak Cabinet at their meeting in February.

“The centre will be a research facility under the purview of SRDC and its goals are to protect Sarawak by improving research in infectious diseases, equip it with the capability and capacity to test therapeutics, vaccines and equipment against infectious agents, and to enable it to detect, diagnose and predict potential infectious disease outbreak,” said SRDC.

The centre will also complement and collaborate with the health ministry in tackling infectious diseases in Sarawak.

It said the centre would bring together talents regionally and internationally, while attracting global biomedical companies to ensure Sarawak is prepared for future challenges, besides providing opportunities for talented Sarawakians to serve the state and drive human capital development in biomedical sciences.

“It will be equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and Bio-Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories to allow research and development on BSL-3 infectious agents and subsequently product testing to ensure commercialisation of research and development output,” it added.