Mar 12, 2010

Aid for 11,000 hardcore poor in Sarawak

KUCHING: Some 11,233 households in Sarawak will be lifted out of the hardcore poor bracket by the end of this year.

This is the target set by the Women, Family and Community Develop-ment Ministry in achieving its National Key Result Areas (NKRA) which is to raise the living standards of low-income households.

Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said these hardcore poor households would be the first to receive productive welfare programmes.

“We’ll be working very closely with the state government towards achieving our target. My officers and I will make it a point to meet all 11,233 hardcore poor households in Sarawak to make sure they are improving.

“We want to make sure there will be no more hardcore poor in Sarawak by the end of 2010,” she told a press conference here yesterday.

Shahrizat said she would announce the fund which was quite substantial in her next visit to the state.

She pointed out that her ministry had drawn up an immediate action plan called 1Azam which is aimed at creating income opportunities for the poor and hardcore poor.

1Azam is divided into Azam Niaga to generate business opportunities through training and micro-credit facilities, Azam Tani to encourage participation in agriculture-based activities, Azam Kerja to offer jobs that do not require high education and skills, and Azam Khidmat to encourage participants to be self- employed by providing services.

1Azam will be launched in Serian today.

A total of 44,643 hardcore poor households had been registered nationwide under the eKasih database, said Shahrizat.

Earlier, Shahrizat briefed Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and his Cabinet, assemblymen, MPs, non-governmental organisation representatives, heads of government departments and agencies on the ministry’s NKRA.