5 more UTCs to be set up nationwide

KUCHING: Five more Urban Transformation Centres ( UTC) will be set up across the the country, namely in Perlis, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Selangor and Sarawak.

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Othman Aziz said the UTC in Perlis and Negeri Sembilan were expected to be operational by the end of this year, and next year for Selangor, Penang and Sarawak.

To date, he said, there were 18 UTC nationwide and the plan to add five more centres was due to overwhelming response from the public.

Since its inception in 2013 until August this year, the UTC have received 52.1 million visits by members of the public dealing with matters with government departments and agencies.

“This proves that the approach introduced by the prime minister ( Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) has attracted many visitors and facilitated the people to use various facilities provided at all the UTC nationwide,” he told Bernama and RTM during his visit to the UTC here yesterday.

Othman said the Perak UTC recorded the most number of visitors at 9.94 million from 2013 until August 2017, followed by Kuala Lumpur ( 5.97 million), Pahang ( 5.82 million), Kedah ( 5.46 million), Melaka ( 5.28 million), Johor (4.05 million), Sabah (3.15 million) and Sarawak (3.02 million).

In Sarawak, apart from the UTC in Kuching, two other centres are located in Sibu and Miri.

Meanwhile, Othman said a daily activity centre for senior citizens would be set up at the Sarawak UTC and was expected to be operational beginning November this year. — Bernama