Kota Kinabalu: More than 11,000 homes under the Rumah Mesra Sabah Maju Jaya programme have either been completed or are undergoing various phases of construction since 2022, benefiting low income and B40 families across the State.
State Rural Development Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Datuk Myrna Jimenez said the programme was one of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor’s most impactful initiatives for the low-income group.
“From the time it started in 2022 until June this year, more than 11,000 units have gone through the pre-implementation and post-implementation phases. This year alone we are targeting to complete 3,650 units,” she said.
Myrna was among panellist at the SANKALPA Sabah 2030 Forum on the implementation of the SMJ 2.0 strategy held at the Sabah International Convention Centre, recently.
She said the volume being handled by Sabah far exceeds that of comparable Federal housing schemes.
“I hope I am not mistaken when I compare our numbers with our Federal counterparts, who average about 100 units under the PPRT programme throughout Sabah,” she said.
She acknowledged the heavy workload this placed on her Ministry’s district level staff.
“Our officers in the districts are the ones carrying out this work on the ground and sometimes I feel for them because the workload is very heavy across so many fronts,” she said.
She said the Ministry hopes to strengthen district offices through additional staffing, working together with the Public Service Department, to keep pace with the growing number of projects under the 13th Malaysia Plan.
“We need to empower our district institutions through proper staffing so our people on the ground can be satisfied with what they have long asked for,” she said.
Additionally, she said the Ministry is widening its focus from infrastructure to building local economies rooted in each district’s own strengths, from culture and tourism to fisheries and agriculture, as Sabah moves toward 2030.
“Tourism is part of it, but it touches on culture as well. Traditional attire based on each ethnic group can be developed and marketed, but things like music, songs and dances such as Magunatip are shared with other countries too, so we must be careful before claiming them as entirely our own,” she said.
She said such cultural elements, when tied to tourism, can create economic opportunities at the village level.
“When tourism enters a village, it can create small business opportunities such as sewing traditional costumes or selling handicrafts and this is one way rural development can grow past just roads and utilities,” she said.
On other rural economic sectors, she spoke about the mixed results of past efforts in fisheries and aquaculture.
“We have been talking about seaweed and fisheries development since the 2000s, and until today the results have not fully matched what we hoped for. Among the ventures we tried, only oil palm and rubber have given consistent returns,” she said.
She said the Ministry has learned from these experiences and now hopes to work more closely with private operators who have shown success in areas such as fish cage farming.
“If it is not the government pushing it, some projects on the ground would not move at all, but we also recognise the good work done by private players in fish cage farming and we hope to learn from and build on that,” she said.
She said the way forward is for each district to develop based on its own natural resources rather than copying what other areas are doing.
“Whether a district is by the sea, in the highlands or in the interior, each has its own strengths, and that is what we need to build on,” she said.