Twenty Chinese New Villages To Be Identified As Tourist Spots

ALOR SETAR (Kedah, Malaysia) Oct 8 (Bernama) -- The government is in the process of identifying 20 out of 613 Chinese New Villages nationwide which are unique and can be presented as tourist locations. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Wee Ka Siong said, the pilot project held in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, would enable each village to display its uniqueness through cultural, food or landscape aspects. "It will create a great impact on the local residents as it will boost their income while creating a harmonious atmosphere," he said. He told this to reporters after attending a meeting with 35 village development new village division officers here Friday. Wee, who is responsible for the Chinese community current affairs development and small and medium scale industries, said the selection process would be carried out comphrehensively and would be announced soon. Meanwhile, he said the government had approved an allocation of US$14.6 million (RM60.7 million) to develop infrastructure projects at 613 Chinese new villages nationwide this year. Wee said that 99.9 per cent of the allocation would be used for 792 development projects involving the repavement of damaged roads and drainage system repairs. "This year, a total of 1,025 houses that were damaged and old were repaired," he said. (US$1 = RM4.15) --BERNAMA