KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 — The government aims to reduce the rural poverty rate to below 10 per cent by next year, says Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Ahmad Zahid, who is also rural and regional development minister said that the current rural poverty rate was 12 per cent.

"We see that as many as 130,000 heads of households are in the hardcore poor group at the moment, we have to get them out of this problem and it is not impossible to do because various ministries have been coordinated. InsyaAllah our determination this year and next year is for this rate to be in the single digits.

"The prime minister has also entrusted me not only to coordinate but to look at the effectiveness of all the efforts to eradicate extreme poverty,” he said when appearing as a guest on the Naratif Khas programme broadcast by RTM last night.

He said in order to ensure the target was achieved, various programmes had been created to increase the source of income for the group.

"In terms of the programmes, we have an Income Raising Programme involving an allocation of RM12 million, where through this programme, the hardcore poor, poor and B40 groups can be helped, and as many as 70 per cent of the participants in this programme have been able to increase their income by more than 30 per cent.

"In addition, we also have training and upskilling programmes for the new generation in rural areas and we found that 70 per cent of the participants who completed the training managed to get jobs,” he said.

Another initiative, he said, was the ‘Desa Lestari’ programme, which not only aimed at uplifting the socioeconomy of villages but also provided advice and assistance to village cooperatives.

"This is to enable village cooperatives to generate income for rural folk, and at the same time, reduce the poverty rate and tackle the cost of living issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said through the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme, the marketability rate of the participants was a remarkable 92.9 per cent.

On Thursday (July 27), Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim launched the MADANI Economy framework with the aim of boosting the Malaysian economy to enable the people to enjoy a better quality of life.

Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, said it was a comprehensive plan for Malaysia to address various challenges and issues related to its competitiveness and attracting investments, as well as outlining actions to address current issues that affected the people’s lives. — Bernama