KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — The government will set up a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Centre to empower and intensify SDG programmes in the country and to keep track of their progress, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said.

He said the establishment of the centre under the Prime Minister’s Department Economic Planning Unit was given the nod during the National SDG Council meeting which he chaired yesterday.

"This sustainable development agenda requires comprehensive and inclusive involvement, as well as efforts from all parties so as to raise the level of awareness among Keluarga Malaysia (the Malaysian Family) at the grassroots level and also among private companies,” he said in a statement today.

Ismail Sabri said the meeting had also agreed on Voluntary Local Reviews (VLR) at the local authorities’ municipal and district councils as well as state government levels, in which a minimum of one report must be provided by each state.

Each state is encouraged to prepare the VLR as a guide in monitoring Malaysia’s progress towards national development growth in order to achieve social, environmental and economic balance, the prime minister said. — Bernama