KUCHING: The state government is determined to improve the livelihood of the rural people by carrying out its Village Expansion Scheme.
In reiterating this, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said villages and longhouses will be transformed through the scheme under which the government will bear the costs of preparing the sites, constructing concrete drains, paving the roads, as well as providing electricity and treated water.
“We want to extend the scheme to both directly and indirectly raise the living standard of the beneficiaries, who are villagers and longhouse dwellers,” he said during a meeting with the Sarawak Land and Survey Department Officers (Landas) at Menara Pelita on Monday (April 5).
He said that with the implementation of the scheme, the value of the people’s assets particularly the rural ones would increase.
“In economics, a person cannot be categorised as poor if he has land. But when the poverty line is calculated based on income alone then many Sarawakians would be considered poor.
“In this case, if we increase the value of the rural people’s assets including land, we hope to raise the value of the assets concerned. In this way they won’t be categorised as poor,” he said.
He explained that when the government has developed an area and all the physical infrastructural facilities are in place, the people’s standard of living will improve.
“Also take note that the implementation of the village scheme is possible by extra revenue that we get from the collection of the State Sales Tax (SST),” he said.
On that extra fund, he said it is the right thing to do to distribute it among the people through the continuous implementation of development projects as opposed to giving hard cash.
Regarding the Land and Survey Department’s office in Miri, he said it would be repaired.
Also present during the meeting were Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion, Assistant Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources Minister Datuk Len Talif Salleh, Sarawak Land and Survey Department director Abdullah Julaihi.
