KUALA NERANG, Aug 7 — The Rural Development Ministry (KPLB) is identifying villages throughout the country that meet the ministry’s criteria to be called Prosperous Villages.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said among the criteria were having good infrastructure, high-impact economic activities, viable human capital and a good level of health.

“As the Prosperous Villages are being ‘rolled out’ now, (we) want to see how many such villages there are. We are also holding a competition (Prosperous Village Aspiration Competition).

“At the same time, we are seeking data from the district offices throughout the country on how many villages can actually be considered Prosperous Villages,” he said when met at the Bukit Tembaga Prosperous Community Programme, here, today.

He said KPLB had not fixed a target for the number of villages that will be hailed as Prosperous Villages this year, but it strongly recommended that all village committees participate in the competition.

“If a village is successful in meeting the criteria to be declared as a Prosperous Village, the ministry will channel a development allocation to the village based on its needs.

“The highest we can allocate is RM1 million for development in the village. There are also allocations of RM100,000 or RM200,000, depending on the needs. For example, if the roads are good, there is electricity and piped water, (but) maybe the surau needs attention, then we give an allocation for the surau.

“But the village head must be creative and we will help. But if there has not been a gotong-royong (communal cooperation activity) for four years, how are we going to give (the allocation)?” he said.

Last month, Mahdzir reportedly said that based on data from PLANMalaysia and KPLB sources, Malaysia currently has 28,303 villages comprising 19,447 in Peninsular Malaysia, 5,976 in Sarawak, 2,853 in Sabah and 27 in Labuan.

KPLB introduced the Prosperous Village Aspiration effort to boost the development of rural areas towards improving the standard of living of village communities, especially economically, besides ensuring that all villages achieve the aspirations formulated in the Rural Development Policy (DPLB), based on three main principles of inclusiveness, sustainability and holistic rural vision by 2030. — Bernama