Rural development stakeholders need to ensure completion of each project, says Zahid

KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Every stakeholder in the rural development ecosystem needs to ensure that every ongoing programme or development project is completed as best as possible, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

He said this is important to ensure that people would benefit from those programmes and projects as soon as possible.

Ahmad Zahid said the matter was raised at the first Ministerial Development Action Meeting (MPTK) of the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (KKDW) here today.

He said the ministry has received an allocation amounting to RM7.44 billion this year to implement 1,763 programmes and projects this year.

“Alhamdulillah, the ministry is meeting its targeted Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

“However, I also emphasised in the meeting that expenditure performance should not be used as a yardstick, but more importantly, projects and programmes implemented can be enjoyed and benefited by the people,” he said in a post on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid said the meeting was held to review the performance of the KKDW projects implemented so far this year.

“I believe this meeting is an important platform in ensuring that the planning, strategy and implementation of the ministry’s programmes or projects can run smoothly.

“With the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy, the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) as well as representatives of relevant ministries and agencies, I am confident that rural development matters can be managed perfectly,” he said.

In a separate Facebook post, Ahmad Zahid said a workshop on the strategic direction of the KKDW development programmes and projects was held after the meeting, to review the status of implementation at the state level.

“I started with Perlis and I made sure that coordination was done at the central level to ensure that the implementation of KKDW programmes or projects could run smoothly and subsequently have a big impact on the well-being of rural communities, especially those involving development in the states.

“This is also to ensure that development in each state can be implemented according to current needs and suitability,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid is also optimistic that the meeting and workshop will be able to produce a comprehensive report regarding the direction and development strategy in the states to develop fairly and prosperously. — Bernama