Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas
KUCHING: Both Deputy Chief Ministers Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing hope that the Federal Government would allocate more money to Sarawak under the 2017 National Budget to reduce hard-core poverty and close the income gap between the rural and urban areas.
Uggah said the state’s top priority now is to minimise the incidence of hard-core poverty among the people.
He revealed that the incidence of hard-core poverty among the people in rural areas is 1.6 per cent, which is almost triple the figure of urban areas which now stands at 0.6 per cent.
“So, obviously we want to tackle this issue as one of our top priorities. Thus, we need more money to be allocated to Sarawak so that we can have programmes that will lift the income of the hard-core poor and narrow the income disparity between those living in the rural and urban areas,” Uggah told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Uggah, who is also MP for Betong was attending Parliament Sitting and hoped that his wish would come true when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak tables the 2017 Budget in Parliament today.
“As the chairman of the committee entrusted to look after the socio-economic transformation programme for Sarawak, we would need a lot of money to implement various initiatives such as implementing better roads and electricity supplies,” said Uggah who is also the Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture and Rural Economy.
Masing agreed with Uggah that since the budget has not been tabled, he wished that there would be more funding to build access roads to arable rural land and resettlements.
“With the construction of rural roads, rural areas can be developed and hence the chief minister’s battle cry ‘Go Rural’ can be realised.
“Secondly, I wish that there would be more money for the construction of telecommunication towers in settlements in rural areas as they will reduce the rural-urban digital divide so that rural schools and settlements will have access to the world and the world has access to them,” said Masing who has been entrusted to look after the rural transformation programme in Sarawak.
He also hoped that with more telecommunication towers built, telecommunication charges could be lowered in rural areas.
“And they would be able to provide instant promotion to places of interests to the rest of the world via WhatsApp, WeChat, Instagram, etc. This can only take place if telecommunication infrastructures are constructed,” said Masing who is also the Minister of Infrastructure Development and Transportation.