KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 21): The government-initiated retail store program Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M) will not be focusing on providing cheaply priced products after its restructuring and rebranding exercise, according to deputy minister of domestic trade and consumer affairs Chong Chieng Jen.

Responding to queries from the Sungai Siput member of Parliament in Dewan Rakyat this morning, Chong said the new KR1M program will instead focus on providing reasonably priced products which carry their own brands.

"Under the first KR1M, the government allocated funds for KR1M to produce its own products under its own brand.

"However, it was found that this measure is ineffective, so what we will do in the new initiative is that the government will play a role as the negotiator with strategic partners or the retailers get prices that is as low as possible from suppliers. Therefore, this new mechanism will not have impact on the government's financials," he said.

Chong also said the first batch of KR1M shops have all been closed since Oct 30, 2017, after it was found that the program's objective was not met effectively, whereby it has swallowed a fund of RM300 million in total for its establishment.

The programme was rebranded as KRIM2.0 in February this year.

"We will change KR1M 2.0. We will change the brand to something else new," Chong said today.