Appraising Economic Development Programmes to Improve the Achievement of Goal 1: Malaysia’s Indigenous Perspective

The economic development programme aims to increase income and reduce indigenous people's poverty while introducing indigenous economic resources. This study appraises indigenous people’s effectiveness of economic development programmes in Perak land development projects (RPS), Malaysia. The researchers adopted a mixed-method approach involving 300 respondents for the questionnaire survey and 15 interview participants in the selected locations in Perak, Malaysia. The qualitative data were analysed by thematic analysis and the quantitative data by SPSS software. Findings show different effects between RPS Legap, RPS Ulu Kinta, and RPS Air Banun. The implementation can be less successful at RPS Air Banun due to the threat of wildlife such as elephants and wild boars. The findings also show that the indigenous people in the area are not carrying out rubber planting projects because of the possible damage from the wild animals. This threatens Goal 1. The situation in RPS Ulu Kinta and RPS Legap is different; the indigenous people enjoy the crop project results by receiving monthly dividends. This study will contribute to informing policymakers to develop a platform for improving Malaysia’s indigenous programmes and, by extension, improve the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 1 (Goal 1).