Poverty index standardised

from The Star

By NG CHENG YEE

BANGI: The Cabinet has agreed to a single Poverty Line Index (PLI) that will apply to urban and rural areas in all states in Malaysia, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said.

He said the Cabinet gave the go-ahead for the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department to come up with a standardised PLI.

“The Cabinet agreed that all poverty eradication programmes by all agencies and state governments must be uniformed,” he said.

He said this to reporters after attending a Hari Raya open house with poor families, organised by the Kajang Municipal Council, here yesterday.

Ong’s ministry is in charge of urban poverty eradication.

He said the Government aimed to reduce the poverty rate to 2.8% by 2010 and eliminate hardcore poverty in the country.

Ong said the Implementation and Coordination Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department would also create a data bank on information collected by ministries and government agencies involved in poverty eradication.

He said this would ensure that the information gathered were accurate and precise.

Currently, the ministries and agencies involve in poverty eradication programmes are Ong's ministry, the Rural and Regional Development Ministry, Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, Education Ministry, Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Ministry and state governments.

Earlier, Ong presented Hari Raya goodies to 314 poor families. They received the aid from five municipal councils in Selangor under the ministry's Urban Poverty Eradication Programme.