Ewon (seated, middle) and heads of government departments at the closing ceremony of the workshop.
KOTA KINABALU: The State Rural Development Ministry is in the midst of drafting a new strategy in its quest to revamp the development of the rural areas in Sabah, said its minister Datuk Ewon Benedick.
He said such move was vital in improving the current rural development plan that was drafted 21 years ago.
Once the new strategy had been drafted, the State’s rural development plan would meet the needs of the people of the day, said Ewon, who was speaking at his ministry’s Bengkel Hala Tuju (Roadmap Workshop) closing ceremony yesterday.
He said such workshop would further spark more new ideas and strategies for Sabah.
“For the past two days, the State Rural Development Ministry had conducted a workshop whereby all district officers and assistant district officers, municipal council deputy presidents and a few other agencies such as the State Economic Planning Unit, Federal Rural Development Ministry as well as other technical agencies such as the Public Works Department, State Water Department and the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd had attended,” said Ewon.
He said the purpose of the workshop was to draft and analyse the national rural development policy, which was provided by the Federal Rural Development Ministry and would be announced in the upcoming weeks.
“We will present our inputs and reviews to the Federal Rural Development Ministry,” he explained.
Among those present in the event were Assistant Rural Development Ministers Rasinin Koutis and Dumi Pg Masdal as well as the ministry’s deputy permanent secretary Fredian Gan.