TAWAU, Sept 24 (Bernama) -- The Chemistry Department will begin its Tawau branch operation in December this year, a move which Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said would greatly ease the burden of the community in the east coast.

He said that at the moment, the community in the east coast of Tawau, Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Beluran and Semporna had to submit samples to the state's only branch in Kota Kinabalu, which is a distance away.

He said that the new branch was planned for the Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP) but was fast-tracked by a year to cater to the urgent need in the area.

"Environmental or plantation samples, for example, require analysis by the labs within three hours after they are collected. Due to the distance between the east coast and Kota Kinabalu, this causes a problem.

"The setting up of the branch in Tawau will greatly ease the submission and hasten the analysis of samples from the east coast," said Dr Ongkili who visited the branch's temporary office at a shoplot in Sri Indah here, Thursday.

For a start, seven staff members comprising two chemists and five technical assistants will be deployed to the branch, which will provide services mainly for forensics and environmental analysis apart from other regular services involving food, toxicology, water and industry analysis.

Dr Ongkili said that last year, the Kota Kinabalu branch received 23,960 cases involving 61,729 samples for analysis.

This involved 5,391 forensics cases with 38,460 samples and 3,102 environmental cases involving 7,003 samples, he said.

He said out of these, about one-third were from the east coast, involving 7,150 cases and 12,483 samples.

The branch will later move to a permanent building at a 2.4ha site here, to be built under the 10MP.