PUTRAJAYA: The Housing and Local Government Ministry says allegations that the MyKiosk project is a 'white elephant' as inaccurate, noting it has helped increase the income of over 7,000 hawkers nationwide.
It added that a check with local authorities found that as of July 2025, there was an occupancy rate of 91.75% for MyKiosk 1.0 and 86.78% for MyKiosk 2.0.
"This initiative has also helped raise the income of more than 7,000 hawker families nationwide, with records showing that some earn up to RM30,000 per month," it said in a statement on Wednesday (Feb 11).
On improvements recommended by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for the MyKiosk initiative, the ministry said it welcomed the report and the recommendations to enhance governance, particularly in terms of studies on requirements and monitoring to ensure the project's long-term effectiveness.
The MACC on Tuesday (Feb 10) submitted five proposals to enhance the governance of the ministry, namely conducting a comprehensive needs assessment, including feasibility and economic impact studies; integrating the success of the MyKiosk Madani project into Key Performance Indicators; and establishing a dedicated monitoring unit or special committee to track the project's effectiveness and outcomes.
Two further points focused on enhancing the MyKiosk Madani initiative guidelines, covering procurement, management and monitoring; and developing comprehensive Implementation Guidelines for development projects under federal allocations to serve as an operational reference.
The ministry, meanwhile, explained that although the policies and allocations are channelled at the Federal level, local authorities serve as the main implementation agencies that are fully responsible for determining strategic locations, appointing eligible traders and maintaining the MyKiosk facilities.
"The MACC report has identified weaknesses at this level, particularly the absence of standard monitoring mechanisms that can affect the project's impact evaluation.
"As such, the ministry has made it compulsory for local authorities to implement comprehensive studies before installing the kiosks to ensure the location has high market demand, thus ensuring business continuity through the new guidelines issued by the Local Government Department," it added.
The ministry also said that the performances of local authorities would be assessed via the "traffic light" system, where those that fail to achieve the key performance index (KPI) for occupancy and operations (red status) will face action to cancel allocation, while those that excel (green status) will receive additional incentives.
In addition, local authorities are recommended to move kiosks that receive poor response to locations that attract more people to optimise asset utilisation.
"In a proactive move to address the issue of location suitability, the ministry has also expanded this initiative to institutions of higher learning through the Mykiosk@Kampus initiative to support the agenda of graduate or youth entrepreneurship at campuses," it added. – Bernama
