Government Will Continue To Implement Programmes That Directly Benefit The Rakyat - Najib

KOTA KINABALU, Nov 15 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the government will continue to implement programmes that directly benefit the rakyat (people).

Launching the Sabah Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) here Saturday night, Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said the setting up of UTCs was one of the major successes of the government with 7.5 million Malaysians who used them expressing satisfaction with the services offered at the one-stop-centres.

In view of UTCs being a bit hit among Malaysians, he said the government would expand the concept to other areas in line with the government's aspiration to further improve its delivery system to the rakyat, investors and also tourists.

"The government will continue with transformation programmes like this because in order for Malaysia to become a top ranked nation, we must further improve our world ranking even though our economy is improving and there is no reason why Malaysia cannot achieve High Income Advanced Economy status," he said.

Najib said Malaysia was on the right track to achieve developed nation status by 2020 as the World Bank had reported the country was in 18th place out of 189 economies currently.

Also present were Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman and Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah.

Najib said the UTC transformation initiative was a sterling example of a programme that directly benefited the rakyat and was done in a short time and at a reasonable cost, including in Sabah.

He also said the government would consider building another UTC for the people of Sabah as requested by Musa.

He thanked Musa's commitment in making the UTC a success which was proof of the close ties between the federal government and the Sabah government in working for Sabahans who had always stood by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

The Sabah UTC is the sixth UTC in the country and is the most unique because it took just 12 weeks to build from an unused commercial complex that was abandoned more than 20 years ago.

Since the UTC concept was introduced in 2012 under the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS), UTCs are now available in Perak, Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Kedah, Johor dand Sarawak.

At the Sabah UTC, currently there are 41 state and federal government agencies especially counter service agencies such as the National Registration Department (JPN), Road Transport Department, Immigration Department and police operating at the one-stop centre which was opened on Dec 16, 2013.

Other agencies operating at the UTC are 1Malaysia Clinic, 1Malaysia Store, Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority, Pos Malaysia, Sabah State Library, Sabah State Water Department, Kota Kinabalu City Hall and the Inland Revenue Board.

As at Oct 31 2014, 771,375 visitors have called at the centre to obtain various services or an average of 2,000 people daily.

More than 5,000 people attended the opening ceremony. The guests were also entertained to performances by Akademi Fantasia winner 2014, Mohd Firman Bansir or Firman, who is from Sabah.