MUAR: The government is to intensify efforts to assist people earning RM3,000 and more to increase their income in line with the six National Key Result Areas (NKRA), Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.
The deputy prime minister said this 40 per cent of the population was not in the poor category but needed to be helped as well.
"We encourage the local authorities to issue small business licences to these people so that they can earn extra income whether in the urban or rural areas," he told reporters after a visit to the Bukit Pasir Ramadan Bazaar in Pagoh here.
Muhyiddin said a monthly income of RM3,000 was not big for an urban resident as the urban cost of living was high.
He said the commitment was strengthened with the appointment of Datuk Seri Idris Jala as the Minister Without Portfolio in the Prime Minister's Department, responsible for implementing the KPIs and the NKRA.
Muhyiddin also said that the government had set a time frame of two years to lift 44,000 people out of hardcore poverty through measures to raise their income.
These measures would be effected through special programmes in agriculture and small industries, he added.
Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, said the government would raise the number of children attending pre-school in the country from 67 per cent to 87 per cent of the age group over the next two years.
The government would also build 800 pre-school classrooms and train the teachers who would take charge, as part of the effort to increase the percentage of children attending pre-school, he added.
Muhyiddin said the government was also drawing up a programme to encourage greater participation of the private sector in pre-school education.
He said the ministry would make an announcement next month on the efforts to pool the resources of the private sector in its pre-school programme. - NST
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