style="text-transform: uppercase;">Johor: The Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (KKLW) has allocated RM26 million this year for the Desa Lestari Programme (21st Century Village) in 15 villages throughout the country.These villages are two each in Kedah and Sarawak, and one each in Perlis, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan and Sabah.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said this was an increase of RM6 million from last year's allocation for the programme, introduced two years ago and uses the cooperative system.

"It is not only a programme which will equip the rural areas with infrastructure but will also allow the locals to generate income through economic activities such as homestays and crops," he said.

He was speaking in a media conference held after a ceremony to hand over and sign an agreement for the programme implementation in Kampung Parit Bugis, here Tuesday.

This year, the KKLW had selected 42 villages for the programme and of these, 15 were fully operational while the programme was still being implemented in the other villages.

He added that overall, most of the villages were able to generate a monthly income of between RM30,000-RM50,000 from the various economic activities carried out. "Generally, it has increased the per capita income of the residents and created job opportunities for the locals," he said.

Asked if such programmes would be dominated by foreigners as in the Cameron Highlands, Shafie said that would not happen as the cooperative system would only allow locals to participate.

"We use the cooperative system as it has credibility, control and supervision. Each year, the cooperative will hold an annual general meeting and its members must be locals.

"Foreigners are not allowed to join and this would prevent them from benefiting from the programme," he said.

On a separate issue, Shafie said the cost of damaged infrastructure which the ministry had to bear from the recent floods would be known soon. – Bernama