YOGYAKARTA: Malaysia aims to support the development of its rural communities that are empowered to enable them to take their place in a democratic society and at the same time, take ownership of their own development, Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said yesterday.
The government, he said, strongly believed there was enormous economic potential in the Malaysian rural communities, and that in the longer term, rural areas would become fully, socially viable and economically independent.
To achieve these objectives, the government appreciates the fact that rural communities need to have an infrastructure that encourages inward investment and entrepreneurial activity. The investment includes good roads, provision of sustainable housing, improved utility supply, better standards of education and health services.
“Under the initiatives of the GTP: 2.0 Rural Basic Infrastructure NKRA (RBI NKRA), our efforts are focused on the delivery of rural basic infrastructure to achieve two long-term goals: improve the quality of life of rural Malaysians and enable greater access to markets thereby improving economic wellbeing and livelihood,” he said when addressing the 8th Asean Ministerial Meeting On Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (8th AMRDPE) here.
He was delivering the country’s statement at the meeting. The meeting with a theme, “Advancing Community Empowerment To Enhance A Better And Sustainable Livelihood”, was opened by Indonesian Youth and Sports Minister Roy Suryo.
The minister said currently, the overall percentage of the rural population in Malaysia had shown a decrease from 71.6 per cent in 1970 to 29 per cent in 2010, but in terms of figure, they had increased from 7.4 million people in 1970, to 8.3 million in 2010.
Malaysia’s highest priority, he said, had been to address three interconnected objectives, namely, the eradication of poverty and improvement in the quality of life; addressing the issue of the growing social and economic disparity between urban and rural communities; and, thirdly the economic expansion through enabling greater access to markets and the creation of a range of business development resource centres. — Bernama