Rural areas are now poised to move to the next level to be part of a developed high-income nation as outlined in the Economic Transformation Programme and Government Transformation Programme.

MOST rural villages in Malaysia have running water and electricity supply and in fact, some of these villagers even have better mobile telecommunication connections than their urban relatives.

It was the second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak, who started the ball rolling to transform the rural communities by gradually providing public amenities such as roads and utilities.

Having laid out the basic infrastructure, the rural areas are now poised to move to the next level to be part of a developed high-income nation as outlined in the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and the Government Transformation Programme (GTP).

The recently launched national transformation plans are complemented by the Rural Transformation Programme (RTP), with the Rural Transformation Centre (RTC) being one of its main initiatives.

Established based on the proposed Blue Ocean Strategy 4 (NBOS 4), it forms a platform for rural communities to harness and benefit from value-added activities that can help multiply their incomes.

To date, two RTCs have been launched by the Prime Minister in Perak and Kelantan. Those in other states will be launched in due course. The Perak RTC conducts programmes to promote positive and dynamic up-skilling to provide the people with basic entrepreneurial and business knowledge.

Malaysia’s unique rural products form an inherent part of the nation’s legacy. It is also a salient selling point that can be harnessed to benefit the rural communities.

This can be seen in how urbanites and tourists alike gravitate towards restaurants that serve kampung dishes, seek out bamboo and mengkuang mats, and are fascinated by the labu sayong.

These rural products are produced on a small scale and sporadic manner, while sales are done peddling hawker-style.

Understanding the demand and cognisant of the opportunities that these products bring to better the lives of the rural folks, the Government has stepped in to draw up a comprehensive programme.

Acknowledging that funding can be a major hurdle, despite having all the necessary know-how, these RTCs are facilitated with banks such as Bank Simpanan Nasional and Agrobank, which provide funding assistance and financial service.

The Medan Infodesa, which provides the rural community with avenues for information-gathering and dissemination, is also located here.

Access to various information is only a click away at the 1Malaysia Information Kiosk, which serves as a one-stop centre for services such as MyEG, JPJ, PDRM, TNB and Telekom Malaysia, while jobs throughout Malaysia can be searched at the Jobs Malaysia Kiosk serviced by the Human Resources Ministry.

These facilities eliminate the need to travel to the nearest town to seek these services.

Agriculture, being the main activity in the rural areas, is usually conducted traditionally. Hence, it is inefficient and uneconomical.

The High Value Added Farming introduced at the RTCs enables rural farmers to achieve higher and better quality yield through technology. Agro-processing then takes over to promote these products at hypermarkets.

Supply Chain Management, 1Malaysia Health Care Services and University Partnerships to identify rural socio-economic needs are also available at the RTCs.

In the end, the rural folks themselves are the best judge on the effectiveness of the RTCs.

However, there are those who may still question whether the RTC will endure and not turn into another white elephant.

Many more activities are being carried out and planned. Agencies like Mara and Infra are also organising courses for the rural folks to better prepare them for the leap to a transformed rural economy.

The RTC is now a focal point where the rakyat can gather, and local and national leaders can meet the grassroots.

Easy access to the RTCs enable urbanites to make a quick trip to the centre to obtain goodies and fresh produce, some of them rare and not available in large cities.

Much ground to help the rural entrepreneurs have been covered through the RTC, but the Government is consistently finding ways to ensure that Malaysia is on the right track to achieve the status of a high-income developed nation.

The RTC is definitely one initiative that ensures urbanites and rural folks move in the same direction towards this goal and that no one is left behind.

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