It is the Sabah Rural Development Ministry's (KPLB) target to secure access to clean water and electricity for all rural villages in Sabah by 2035.

Through the hardcore poor housing project, Minister Ewon Benedick said the government is committed to building new homes and will also upgrade rural roads.

"The ministry's 10-key result areas and 316 key-performance indicators (KPIs) were launched on Dec 6, 2018, and to ensure that the set targets are achieved, we have to draw up a strategic plan in line with the current situation as the state and the federal government have a limited budget.

"In addition, we look forward to the participation of non-governmental organisations, government-linked companies and corporate companies to assist the government through their corporate social responsibility programmes in achieving the set targets," he told reporters at the closing of the Kota Belud Youth Development Programme.

The 1998 Sabah Rural Development Strategic Plan is also in the process of being revised and updated by the ministry as it is no longer relevant to current state policies. Ewon hopes to see the new plan completed later this year.

"We have conducted workshops to give our inputs on how the policy could be implemented in Sabah," he said.