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INTRODUCTION

The Sarawak Government commisioned a feasibility study on the establishment of Rural Growth Centres (RGC) in the State in January 1994 and 9 areas were selected. Planning for this study were essentially to facilitate and accelerate the socio-economic growth and betterment of the quality of life in the rural areas.

In order to address these issues, the State Government has decided to develop the rural areas of Sarawak in a more systematic, coordinated and integrated manner through RGC Development Approach. Through this means it is envisaged that the rural sector of Sarawak will be able to compete with the urban centres.

The Rural Growth Centre Programme, therefore has been formulated to transform the rural areas into attractive places to live and work in. Inevitably this programme will assist to speed up rural development as well as to eradicate poverty.

Objectives of R.G.C.

• To create a sizeable, viable and self-sustaining rural settlements with population of not less than 5,000 persons each with proper provision of better facilities and amenities;
• To facilitate and accelerate the socio-economic growth and betterment of the quality of life in the rural areas;
• To address rural poverty problems, maximise productivity and income;
• To diversify the rural economy in order to generate greater employment opportunities and reduce out migration;
• To facilitate a greater local participation particularly of the native in the development programmes especially in the economical sector; and
• To facilitate and consolidate government development efforts especially in the provision of support services such as in the form of human resource development

Socio-economic Characteristics

Details of current and projected population, labour force, employment and migration in the RGCs are presented in Table 1.1. Average annual population growth is anticipated to vary between 1.7% - 2.4%. In regard to the labour force, an increase in the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is expected in most centres particularly the LFPR for females) and by the year 2012, Beladin would have the largest labour force of 4,891 and Nanga Spak, with 1,403 the smallest labour force.

Migration in all RGCs is expected to continue in the short-run but a secular decline in the rate is forecasted. Estimated rates of migration which currently vary from 3.6% to 30.4%, are projected to fall to levels ranging from 0.1% to 0.8%.

Details of current and projected monthly household incomes in the RGCs are shown in Table 1.1.

Click to See Table 1.1. Click to close this document

DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS

The integrated, multi-component RGC Development Plan specifically identified a wide range of project proposals with the objective of addressing poverty and raising the quality of life in the RGCs. The project proposals can be subdivided under four main development components:-

No.	Components	No. of Projects	Estimated Cost (RM)
I	Infrastructure	134	367.3 million
II	Economic Development	156	91.76 million
III	Service Centre	239	33.0 million
IV	Human Resource Development (HRD)     Proposals	4	10.74 million

MAJOR DEVELOPMENT CONSTRAINTS

• Lack of technical know-how on farm management and low levels of productivity in the primary economic sector due to low levels of agro-chemical usage, structural and institutional constraints, pesticide and declining prices for internationally traded commodities.
• Lack of technical know-how on economic, physical and social constraints facing the livestocks and fisheries (marketing and financial inputs availability).
• Infrastructural deficiencies such as poor transportations and communications

PROJECT JUSTIFICATION

      The Projects are proposed based on the following justifications:-

• The infrastructure component will provide good transportation and communication systems and facilitate produce marketing
• The economic/productive sector which are economically viable will generate new employment opportunities.
• The Service Centre contributes to socio-cultural interaction with more Bumiputera engaged in commercial activities.
• Human Resource Development contributes to skill upgrading for project related activities.
• Enhance future development prospects as well as the quality of life in the centres due to the improvement of household incomes, availability of sufficient basic infrastructure facilities and public utilies.
  The estimated number of direct beneficiaries are as follows:-

DEVELOPMENT COSTS

The total development cost of the Project is estimated at RM502.8 million (US132.32 million) of which Infrastructure components account for 73.05%, Economic Base/productive sector 19.25%, Service Centre 6.57% and Human Resource Development proposals 2.14% respectively.

FINANCIAL/ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Financial internal rates of return (FIRR) and Economic internal rates of return (EIRR) have been estimated for economic base/productive sector projects the RGCs. The combined FIRR and EIRR for the RGCs were as follows:-

Overall the FIRR and EIRR exceeded the OCC (Opportunity Cost of Capital) assumed to be 10%.

** Note:  The figure for other RGCs areas are not included.

PROPOSED ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT  STRUCTURE

Existing state and/or federal institutions are recommended as executing agencies for their specific parts of the RGC Development Plan but overall planning of the RGC should be the responsibility of the State Planning Unit (SPU). Planning Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation at the RGC level, however, is recommended to be undertaken by a Project Management Unit (PMU). The PMU would carry out interagency coordination and synchronisation of the needed activities making up the projects components to ensure effective implementation and carry out the long-term monitoring and evaluation.

Click to view Organisation Structure

PROPOSED IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE

 

Sub-packaging is also included in the proposals to facilitate sequential, phased implementations and allows the capacities of facilities to be gradually expanded, upgraded or modified in parallel with the pace of population build-up in the RGCs.

RURAL GROWTH CENTERS : Maps     

Click on the links below for RGC Maps :