Over 1.7m people in rural, remote areas benefited from MCTC

PUTRAJAYA: Over 1.7 million people in rural and remote areas have benefited from the Mobile Community Transformation Centre, since it was introduced in 2013.

Director of the National Strategy Unit of the Finance Ministry, Dr. Aminuddin Hassim said the overwhelming response reflected the effectiveness of MCTC, which is aimed at bringing key government services closer to the public.

"In term of organisation frequency, we are targeting 70-75 programmes annually, whereby they will be held every weekend at selected locations.
"Up to June 30, 2016, 197 MCTC programmes have been successfully carried out," he told Bernama in an interview in conjunction with the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) International Week, here yesterday.

Malaysia will host the event from Aug 14 to 20 at the Putrajaya International Conference Centre here.

Aminuddin said besides bringing government services closer to communities in rural and remote areas, MCTC indirectly had facilitated ease of dealing on various matters by the target groups.

"Those who are grateful for this initiative include women, single mothers and senior citizens, whose movements are sometimes limited," he explained, adding that up to 55 services were offered every time the MCTC team visited a location.

MCTC is an initiative of the NBOS in line with the the implementation of the Urban Transformation Centres for urban communities and the Rural Transformation Centres for the rural population.

NBOS, meanwhile, was introduced in November 2009 as a government initiative aimed at driving Malaysia towards a developing, high-income, harmonious and prosperous nation in all aspects.

It also serves as the basis for the Malaysia National Development Strategy (MyNDS) that will drive the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016-2020). — Bernama