By Rintos Mail
KUCHING: About 70 per cent of the allocation for Serembu under the Greater Kuching Coordinated Development Agency (GKCDA) will be spent on economic effect projects, says Miro Simuh.
The Serembu assemblyman said he had decided to utilise the allocation to implement projects that have very high impact on the economy.
He said projects that are going to have high impact on the economy are the proposed food hub processing park in Paku, the pig abattoir in Siniawan and tourism-related development projects.
He believed that these projects would cause changes in economic activities that result from its implementation as well as its full operation.
“I have worked out and finalised the projects to be implemented in my constituency under the GKCDA allocation, and the positive consequences of implementing them will include job creation during construction and after, because when new business starts operating, the operators will need people to run and manage it.
“We are also going to see the ripple and induced effects of a project, like increased demand for goods and services from suppliers to the project, increased spending of new employees and by businesses that benefit from the project’s activities and the resulting economic activity,” he said.
Miro said the other 30 per cent of the allocation under the GKCDA funding would be spent on social amenities, the facilities and services that contribute to the social well-being and quality of life in a community.
He said social amenities will include road connection to open new areas, mostly to connect village extension areas.
He clarified that he had rather spend more on the economic effect projects than on social amenities because he knew that he could build social amenities with his rural transformation project (RTP) fund.
“I fully acknowledged social amenities are essential for fostering social interaction, providing access to basic needs, and promoting community development, but I can do that with the state government allocation for my constituency.
“I have implemented several social amenities using my RTP or even my minor rural development fund (MRP) and I will continue to utilise these fund, especially my RTP to do so.
“But I’m not sure if this GKCDA fund will be given again after this, so I might as well utilise bulk of it on the economic effect projects,” he said.
Miro said each state assembly within the GKCDA area was provided RM150 million to implement projects in their constituency.
Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg had provided RM1.5 billion to the GKCDA to implement projects in the constituencies within the Agency.
There are 10 constituencies—Tanjung Datu, Opar, Tasik Biru, Serembu, Mambong, Tarat, Tebedu, Bukit Semuja, Kedup and part of Balai Ringin—under GKCDA.
The Sarawak government has several other regional development agencies and authorities that receive funding for development projects.
This include the Highland Development Agency (HDA), Upper Rajang Development Agency (Urda), Northern Region Development Agency (NRDA), Integrated Regional Samarahan Development Agency (Irsda), Sri Aman Development Agency (Sada), Betong Division Development Agency (BDDA), Rajang Delta Development Agency (Radda) and Rascom Area Development Agency(Rada).
Aside from that, each state assemblyman in the ruling government had been provided the annual RTP allocation amounting to RM5 million to fund community-benefiting projects within their constituencies.
Introduced in 2015, the RTP was launched to accelerate rural development by providing essential infrastructure, utilities, and social amenities.
