KKDW TO FOCUS ON INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT BETWEEN RURAL AND SUBURBAN AREAS - AHMAD ZAHID

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 7 (Bernama) -- The Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (KKDW) is focusing not only on the development of rural communities, but also communities living on the outskirts of cities, in line with efforts to ensure that planned development is comprehensive or inclusive.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the rural community now comprises 8.1 million residents out of the total 34.5 million Malaysian population, thus demanding more comprehensive development planning.

"Our focus is not only on rural areas, but also on the outskirts of cities. There are also agencies under KKDW that support the urban community, such as the Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA)," he said during a 30-minute Townhall session in conjunction with the closing ceremony of the Rancakkan MADANI Bersama Malaysiaku Programme here today.

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Also participating in the Townhall session were Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, and moderator Nazri Kahar.

Ahmad Zahid, who is also the Minister of Rural and Regional Development, said the rural development policy was carefully crafted to ensure that the objectives outlined by the government to help the rural community were achieved.

This included creating economic opportunities for the rural community; reducing the rate of migration from rural to urban areas; compulsory educational opportunities must be provided to all rural residents; communication coverage, especially 5G, must also take into account sparsely populated areas, namely rural areas; and social restructuring in rural areas.

He said the five core pillars were translated through 42 game changers as well as the implementation of two settlement sessions each year involving all departments, agencies and units under the KKDW to ensure that the transformation was carried out uniformly throughout the country.

He said the government also did not marginalise the Orang Asli community, where many development programmes that were designed and implemented had benefited the group.

From the education aspect, Ahmad Zahid said that the enrollment of students from the Orang Asli community into Higher Education Institutions showed an increase.

“Every year I target between 400 and 600 Orang Asli children to enter university. But for the three years under the Madani Government, the achievement of Orang Asli children entering university is 1,349 (as of November 2025), the highest achievement.

“(In addition), under the housing programme for Orang Asli, the Prime Minister has introduced a housing scheme that provides opportunities for them to live in the place or location where they are but the housing scheme has been transformed with a new construction method and accelerated its construction,” he said.

He said the various initiatives implemented for rural communities have helped reduce the rate of migration from rural and suburban areas to cities, from 3.1 per cent previously to 2.3 per cent this year.

“This is all the result of 167 programmes that have been introduced by MADANI government for these three years,” he said.

Responding to the moderator’s question regarding areas in Sabah whose development is described as unserved and underserved, Ahmad Zahid said the government has identified the problems there which are described as a triple problem, namely infrastructure rust, fire and water.

“The Prime Minister has given empowerment or power where projects worth RM50 million and below are implemented by the state government itself with the allocation directly injected into the state treasury.

“God willing, I am ‘color blind’ to implement more frequent rural programmes in Sabah without neglecting Sarawak because Sarawak is there and has driven forward compared to Sabah. I am obliged to help the people of Sabah in terms of rural development,” he said.

The three-day Rancakkan MADANI programme, which began last Friday, featured over 300 people-facing services, career carnivals, interactive exhibitions, family entertainment and various special offers for the public.

The Rancakkan MADANI programme is a continuation of the One-Year Programme with the MADANI Government and the Two-Year Programme with the MADANI Government, which has become a tradition of the government's annual reporting directly to the people.

-- BERNAMA