KOTA KINABALU: The Community Development and Consumer Affairs Ministry has proposed to create new rezoning under the 1Harga 1Sabah initiative.
Speaking at the Sabah Consumers Day launch at Wisma Wanita here yesterday, Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad Ayid said a transporter would be sent to one zone or area only so that no overlap of transporters being sent to areas would happen again.
“A committee will be given full power to select and appoint contractors, and preference will be given to companies that have or had the full support of the state government,” she said.
“Meeting between the transporters and the ministry should be done regularly to establish and restructure the project in phases as set during the meeting to ensure the supply quota for each zone or area is sufficient to meet the needs of the people in the zone or area.
“Not only that, monitoring should be made by making a study of the delivery system every three months to ensure the effective delivery of its objectives,” she explained.
According to Jainab, auditing and compliance programs will be carried out more often by the ministry to ensure that the delivery is done in a transparent manner to achieve the price uniformity objective.
The 1Harga 1Sabah would also finance the Distribution of Essential Goods programme, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Community Drumming 2016, she said.
The 1Harga 1Sabah allocation will benefit 1,042,547 rural population encompassing 503 areas consisting of 4,638 Points of Sales and 187 transporters.
Musa when launching the Sabah Consumers Day program, said the RM90 million allocation for the 1Harga 1Sabah in Sabah would ensure price uniformity for selected goods statewide.
He said the allocation through the initiative was relevant in efforts to standardize prices of goods between the city and rural areas in the state.
“Sarawak has been allocated RM110 million, Sabah RM90 million and RM60 million is allocated to Peninsular Malaysia,” he said.
“We have received less allocation… However, if we feel that it is not enough, God willing, we can ask for additional allocations, in particular, from the Prime Minister,” he ensured.
The Chief Minister also urged industry players and traders to carry out healthy trading activities and cultivate consumer-centric business principles in the state.
“Consumers will benefit from a market with a wide and competitive range of goods and services, which in turn, will stimulate domestic economic growth.
“In the end, it will create a win-win situation for all parties in the economic chain,” he explained.
Musa also urged Sabahans to exercise their power as consumers.
He said if the people remained united and use the 3M method, memilih’, ‘memboikot’, and ‘melapor’ (choose, boycott and report), unscrupulous traders would not be able to take advantage of consumers who are the majority group in the world.
According to Jainab, the level of consumer awareness was only 58% and the level of empowerment was only 52.6% in Malaysia.
She said the figures reflected that consumers nationwide were aware of their fundamental rights but did not translate them into action.