BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: Malaysia’s holistic approach in revving up rural development and poverty eradication have borne fruits.
Minister of Rural Development and Regional Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said at the `7th Asean Minister Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (AMPRDPE)’ here yesterday that Malaysia’s poverty rate had dropped from 49.3 per cent in 1970 to 3.8 per cent by 2009.
REGIONAL HEADS MEET: Prince Al- Muhtadee Billah officiating at the opening of AMRDPE XII in Bandar Seri Begawan yesterday.
In terms of hardcore poor, it dropped from 6.9 per cent in 1984 to 0.7 per cent in 2009.
“We have achieved one of the Global Development Objectives, which is to half poverty rate. We are now continuing our efforts to eradicate hardcore poverty by 2015, although there are certain issues which need to be addressed,” he said at the event graced by Brunei Crown Prince and Senior Minister in the Prime Minister Department Pengiran Muda Mahkota Al- Muhtadee Billah.
Mohd Shafie said the fight against poverty had experienced hiccups, including the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis which caused Malaysia’s eight per cent annual growth rate to basically grind to a halt.
The government had now undertaken economic transformation programmes (ETP) through National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) to complement the government’s transformation programmes (GTP).
Malaysia, he said, aimed to raise income levels to US$15,000 by year 2020. About 2.4 million households currently earned less than RM2,300 monthly and the government aimed to raise the income of 40 percent of this group who earned RM1,400 monthly to RM2,300 by 2015.
On rural development, he said electricity coverage was 93.5 per cent while that for rural water supply hit about 73 per cent last year.
Rural communication improved from 18,927km in 2000 to 45,905km 2009.
Among the Asean ministers present were Brunei Minister of Youth and Sports Pehin Orang Kaya Dato Paduka Hazair Abdullah, Sao Chivoan (Rural Development Minister of Cambodia), Bounheuang Douangphachanh (Minister in the Prime Minister Office of Laos), Kyaw Hsan (Minister of Information and Culture, Myanmar), Jose Eliseo M Rocamora (Minister of Poverty Eradication of Philippines), Halimah Yacob (Singapore), Dr Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu ( Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural, Thailand) and Sujana Royat ( Deputy Minister of Population Welfare Coordination, Indonesia).