Sabah invests RM1.33 billion in human capital under SMJ Plan
Published on: Tue, Jul 08, 2025
By: Ricardo Unto Text Size: KOTA KINABALU: Sabah spent RM1.33 billion on human capital development from 2021 to 2024 under SMJ 1.0, including RM848.26 million for education aid and RM485 million for talent development, said Assistant Minister Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan. Fourteen new initiatives worth RM164.14 million benefited over 210,000 students. The Sabah TVET Council, launched in May 2025, now oversees 160 technical institutions. For social wellbeing, RM1.49 billion was disbursed to 336,076 recipients, and the SMJ Friendly Homes Initiative has delivered or is building 7,482 homes. The Syukur programme supports 100,000 low-income households with RM300 monthly. In health, 100 haemodialysis machines worth RM4.5 million were distributed, with RM4 million more in treatment subsidies. The 'Program Homeward' has helped 1,169 people so far. Sabah is also expanding conservation areas, with 2 million hectares of land under Totally Protected Areas and a goal of 2.2 million hectares by 2025. Marine Protected Areas now cover 1.015 million hectares. * Read full report in tomorrow's print paper or log in or sign up for e-paper and premium online news access. * Follow us on Instagram and join our Telegram and/or WhatsApp channel(s) for the latest news you don't want to miss.
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