Pemerintah mengubah pendekatan dalam pengembangan food estate di Kalimantan Tengah dengan menjadikan manajemen risiko lintas sektor sebagai instrumen utama perencanaan dan pelaksanaan proyek. Wakil Menteri Koordinator Bidang Pangan Hanif Faisol Nurofiq menyebut skema Manajemen Risiko Pembangunan Nasional (MRPN) kini melekat dalam proyek Kawasan Swasembada Pangan, Energi, dan Air Nasional (KPEAN) di provinsi tersebut. Langkah ini ditujukan untuk meningkatkan efektivitas proyek, mempercepat pencapaian swasembada pangan, dan mengoptimalkan pemanfaatan lahan yang tersedia.

Food estate di Kalimantan Tengah bukan proyek baru. Program serupa telah beberapa kali dijalankan sejak 1995, 1999, 2020 hingga berlanjut pada era pemerintahan Presiden Prabowo Subianto. Namun, Hanif menegaskan seluruh upaya tersebut belum membuahkan hasil yang memuaskan. Pemerintah kini berupaya menutup berbagai celah yang dinilai menjadi penyebab proyek-proyek terdahulu tidak mencapai target, dengan menempatkan manajemen risiko sebagai bagian integral dari tata kelola pembangunan.

Menurut Hanif, penguatan tata kelola juga tercermin dari meluasnya pelibatan kementerian dan lembaga dalam proyek KPEAN. Selain Kementerian Pertanian, proyek ini menggandeng Kementerian Koordinator Bidang Infrastruktur dan Kejaksaan Agung. Kolaborasi antarsektor tersebut diharapkan mendorong proses perencanaan dan pelaksanaan yang lebih akuntabel sekaligus meminimalkan hambatan di lapangan. Sejak 2020, kajian teknis dan perencanaan kawasan dilakukan bersama Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Nasional (Bappenas) dan kementerian terkait.

Salah satu perubahan penting adalah fokus pengembangan food estate pada lahan di luar kawasan hutan. Pemerintah menegaskan lokasi-lokasi yang dipilih telah melalui kajian sebelumnya. Di sisi lain, pengembangan kawasan pangan di Kalimantan Tengah dimaksudkan untuk memperluas basis swasembada pangan nasional yang selama ini tidak hanya disandarkan pada Papua Selatan, tetapi juga mencakup empat provinsi. Dengan kerangka manajemen risiko dan koordinasi lintas lembaga tersebut, pemerintah menargetkan fase terbaru food estate Kalteng mampu keluar dari pola kegagalan yang berulang dan bergerak menuju hasil yang lebih terukur.

Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd. is ramping up store openings and restoring a full dividend payout after a sharp rebound in profit, underscoring management’s confidence in the recovery of Hong Kong and Macau’s beauty retail market. The cosmetics chain’s full-year sales rose 14.2% to HK$4.383 billion, while profit increased 1.6 times from a year earlier, allowing the group to boost its final dividend and return its payout ratio to 100%. Chairman and chief executive Simon Kwok said the stronger distribution reflects a “very strong” outlook, pointing to broad-based improvement in store traffic and spending.

Kwok said all key operating indicators in Hong Kong and Macau — including revenue, same-store sales, transaction volume, average ticket size and units per transaction — recorded year-on-year gains in the last financial year. Momentum has continued into the new year: in the first quarter of the current financial year, total revenue grew 24%, with offline sales up 30.9%. Hong Kong and Macau led with a 32.5% jump in offline sales, while Southeast Asia rose 17%. Online revenue slipped 3.2% overall, weighed by an 18.1% decline in mainland China, even as Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia posted online growth.

On the back of the recovery, Sa Sa is reviving its brick‑and‑mortar expansion, particularly in tourist districts that were heavily rationalised during the downturn. The company plans to open 10 new stores in the current financial year; it has already added outlets in Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui, including a large upstairs shop of about 6,000 to 7,000 square feet at the Mong Kok Man Wah Centre, on top of an existing ground‑floor unit. A store at the Airside mall in Kai Tak is slated to open in August, and another at Lok Ma Chau is planned to capture cross‑border traffic. Kwok said tourist‑area stores are now about half the number they once were, leaving “substantial room” to rebuild the network, though he stressed the group will not neglect local customers.

Store format will be a key part of the strategy. Kwok said he and his wife favour large outlets and that she has advocated opening flagship stores to serve both mainland and local shoppers in a more spacious, comfortable environment. Still, decisions between large and small formats will depend on rents and operating costs; smaller shops require less staff and investment. He said that while the opening of new outlets may “slightly” dilute same‑store sales metrics, the impact should be limited as long as locations and rental terms are carefully chosen. Footfall remains the main focus: “Only when there are people will there be revenue,” he said, adding that broader product assortment and competitive pricing should help underpin demand even as more drugstore and beauty chains enter the market.

Sa Sa also aims to stabilise and eventually grow its Southeast Asian operations, where the group ended the last financial year with 75 stores — 70 in Malaysia and five in Singapore. The region’s near‑term target is to achieve break‑even. Three of the five Singapore stores are already profitable, and Kwok said the company would consider opening more outlets there if suitable opportunities arise, noting that Singaporean sales growth was particularly strong in the second half of the year. The Malaysian business is described as stable, with management planning tighter cost control. Kwok played down concerns about competition from other travel destinations and cross‑border consumption trends, saying that Hong Kong remains convenient for many mainland visitors, some of whom come once or twice a month, and that the company’s breadth of products and pricing remain competitive.