Rina Harun
KUCHING: Pakan is the poorest district in Malaysia, a national Chinese daily reported, quoting Rural and Regional Development Minister Rina Harun.
The newspaper said it is the poorest as it registered household income of RM2,760 per month.
The second and third poorest districts are in Sabah – Tongod (RM3,057) and Pitas (RM3,076).
These three districts are among the 28 poor districts in Malaysia – 13 in Sarawak, seven in Kelantan, five in Sabah, two in Kedah and one in Pahang. When contacted, Pakan assemblyman Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom urged The Borneo Post to compare notes with Pakan District Office to make sure the figure is correct. Rina told a press conference in Tangkak on Sunday that these 28 poor districts are to be given special attention for the implementation of socio-economic development programmes.
Rina said these included the development of infrastructure, improving their income, education and so on to enable the residents in the area to come out of the clutches of poverty, according to Bernama.
She said among the districts identified were Tumpat in Kelantan, Yan in Kedah besides several others in Sabah and Sarawak, thus her ministry would emphasise on cooperating with other relevant agencies and departments to raise the socio-economic standard of the residents.
“We have identified the areas that need to be given special emphasis including education as the specified target of the ministry where 67 per cent of rural children from families belonging to the B40 group will be placed in Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) besides entrepreneurship programmes and various other initiatives for them,” she said.
She was approached by reporters after officiating at the ‘Seminar Usahawan Muslimah’ (Muslim Women Entrepreneurs Seminar) at Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi Mara (KKTM) Ledang, Tangkak yesterday.
The seminar was organised by Persatuan Muslimah Johor and attended by about 200 petty traders and hawkers to expose them to business modules and strategy.