Sabah to eradicate hardcore poor through job placement

TUARAN: The Sabah state government aims to eliminate 70 to 80 per cent of the hardcore poor in Sabah by 2025, through job placement.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said the state government through the Sabah Maju Jaya Secretariat (SMJ Secretariat) will be coordinating job placement for the children of hardcore poor families through a programme called Inisiatif MYSMJA.

“We have a large number of hardcore poor, about 22,510 heads of household (KIR) throughout Sabah, so we have entrusted the SMJ Secretariat led by Datuk Rusmadi (Datu Sulai) to coordinate the government’s initiative to eradicate poverty.

“Some government departments as well as investors such as Kibing will appoint these hardcore poor to work in their factories as well as government agencies or government-owned companies.

“This is a way for us to resolve hardcore poverty issue. We prioritise their children to be employed in factories or government agencies. We even encourage investors to be obligated to employ or appoint those on eKasih list,” he added.

Hajiji said this at the ceremony to hand over government agencies’ participation of the Inisiatif MYSMJA, which will begin in Tuaran district.

The event was held at Rasa Ria Resort here on Thursday.

For the record, there are a total of 101,113 registered hardcore poor individuals in Sabah from the 22,510 KIR.

Hajiji also said apart from giving jobs to the hardcore poor, the initiative is also aimed at giving various assistance to unproductive participants, especially the senior citizens by giving them welfare aid or capital to start businesses directly from the Finance Ministry.