KUCHING: Community leaders are urged to explore avenues to enhance the skills and capabilities of the younger generation for income generation through socio-economic activities.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said apart from helping in identifying those in need of assistance, community leaders also must help in identifying ways to boost the income of the people especially among the younger generation.
“We cannot just solely rely on government or organisation funds or aids, but we need to figure out how to enhance the skills and capabilities of our younger generation to acquire knowledge and skills so they can improve their life through socio-economic activities.
“Nowadays, we can start efforts from home. And our community leaders can help to identify what abilities or skills we can tap into from within the community.
“Those skills we can develop, for example, if someone is skilled in cooking, we can help them to develop their cooking skills from home and run an online business from home,” he explained.
Fadillah who is also the Petra Jaya MP said this while speaking at the handover of Duit Raya at Kampung Pinang Jawa Multipurpose Hall here today (Mar 31).
On a related note, Fadillah said under the federal government initiatives, there is a programme called Komuniti Madani aiming to organise local economic activities.
“It collaborates with the Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK) to organise local economic activities in your area. If you have suggestions, for instance, in the context of fertigation farming, if there’s available land, how can you proceed?
“The programme has a maximum allocation of RM50,000, but you need to propose what economic activities you want to engage in involving the entire community and the incomes later will be distributed among those who are involved with the economic activity.
“The key is to involve the entire community so that the income generated can be distributed among the participants. This is already part of the federal government’s plan,” he said.
Fadillah also stressed the importance for all community leaders and members to participate collaboratively in income generation through a variety of activities, be it online from home or community activities.
