Youths to develop rural areas – Shafie

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KUALA LUMPUR: The government is developing the rural youth workforce to speed up the development of rural areas so that they are on par with the urban areas.

Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said for this purpose, intensified efforts would be made to ensure rural youths would remain in their areas while the workforce in the towns would be encouraged to move to the rural areas.

Cooperation with the other ministries concerned such as the Youth and Sports and Agriculture and Agro-based is needed so that there is coordination and operate as a team to achieve its objectives, he said.

“There are a lot of potentials in the rural areas which can be exploited to the maximum such as natural resources and tourist spots, and there is a lot to be developed,” he said in a dialogue program on TV1 which was broadcast live on Wednesday.

Shafie, who was reappointed to lead the Rural and Regional Development Ministry, said the changes in the environment, policy and stragegy used to achieve the existing development could not be used to take it to the next level.

“Therefore, we need a radical change in our approach to prompt the development of the rural economy so that it will be sustainable in the long run and enjoyed by all residents and enable Malaysia to achieve a high-income status.

“To face the challenges of 2013, the ministry will implement the Sustainable Rural Program which is one of the main programs under the 21st Century Rural Program which will be implemented from 2013 to 2015,” he said.

The Sustainable Rural Program is to develop villages so that they are advanced and the people earning a high income through economic development in various fields, including agriculture, rural tourism and others.

On the Rural Business Challenge (RBC), Shafie said the programme also provides opportunities for youths to make entrepreneurship as a career choice or source of income.

“It is an initiative to transform the rural areas where we will see youths making rural areas a more attractive place for them to live in with the existence of employment opportunities and income-generating potential through the resources available in rural areas,” he said.

Shafie said another potential area which has yet to be fully tapped in the rural areas is rural tourism.

“There are now over 800 homestays in this country but the 2011 statistics showed that this sector represents only 0.003 percent of the 25 million foreign visitors to our country.

“The number is too small compared with the total tourist arrival to make Malaysia one of the 10 countries most visited by foreign tourists,” he said, adding one of the main issues brought up by rural homestay operators is the lack of capital to build better tourism infrastructure.

Under Sustainable Rural Program, he said the ministry had identified 14 villages involved in the homestay to be developed and upgraded with tourism infrastructure so that they can accommodate more visitors as well as increase revenue and create new employment opportunities to the locals.

On the progress of the Rural Transformation Centre (RTC), Shafie said he was very proud of the success made by RTC Perak and RTC Kelantan which made sales of RM54.3 million and RM237.2 million respectively.