SIBU: The implementation of the Village Transformation Programme (VTP) has had a major impact on rural communities in empowering the local economy.
Sarawak Implementation Monitoring Unit (SIMU) Deputy Director, Mohamad Ashree Wee, said the programme was one of the Sarawak Government’s initiatives to provide skills that could help generate additional incomes for participants.
“In addition, it can develop and advance the local community by producing longhouse and traditional village communities who are patriotic, self-motivated, knowledgeable and self-reliant,” he said at the closing ceremony of the Sibu Division VTP Series 3/2025 at Premier Hotel here on Friday.
Ashree said that in the long term, this programme could help develop self-reliant and inclusive rural communities in line with the goals of the Post-COVID-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030.
According to him, the VTP is a programme implemented in underdeveloped traditional villages and longhouses that have been nominated by each Division Resident through the Rural Transformation Committee for Longhouses or Traditional Villages chaired by the Sarawak State Secretary.
He further explained that the participants would be monitored by the programme secretariat in the next three months.
“The secretariat with the assistance of the Divisional Resident Office and the District Office will conduct a study on the results and impact of these courses on the daily lives of the participants and the surrounding community.
“This year, follow-up visits will be held at several longhouses and villages in the Sibu Division that are present today,” he said.
Ashree hoped that the VTP programme would make the participants agents of change for their respective communities and families.
“I hope that the participants can share knowledge from the courses they have attended to help their respective longhouse and village communities.
“I hope they will practise the knowledge gained to increase their incomes and improve the quality of life of their families,” he said.
On another matter, Ashree said that the last VTP would be held in Sri Aman this October.
“The Sri Aman VTP will be the closing of the 2022-2025 VTP, which is a special project using the 12th Malaysia Plan allocation,” he added.
Forty-eight participants from longhouses and villages in Sibu, Kanowit and Selangau districts joined the VTP programme, which offered culinary and handicraft courses, from August 4 to 8.
Also present were Sibu Divisional Resident, Mohamad Porkan Budiman, and CENTEXS Industry Academy Deputy Director, Dr Nadianta Musa.
