Committee serious in increasing rural household income
KUCHING: A committee set up to look after rural economy is making a coordinated effort to increase the household income of rural folk to RM4,000 a month by 2020.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said a well coordinated and intensified effort was necessary to reduce poverty in the rural areas which now stands at 1.6 per cent.
He said presently 33.1 per cent of people in the rural areas were earning below RM3,000 per month.
“The committee, which is tasked to look after the rural economy, is making a coordinated and intensified effort with the rural economic programmes, including the agriculture sector, together with 31 agencies because we want to eradicate poverty in the rural areas and increase the household income to RM4,000 per month,” he told reporters here yesterday.
He earlier chaired a Rural Economy Committee meeting at his office in Wisma Bapa Malaysia.
Minister of Youth and Sports and Solidarity Dato Sri Michael Manyin, Assistant Minister for Public Utilities ( Water Supply) Datuk Roland Sagah, Assistant Minister for Rural Economy ( Interior Areas) and Plantation Datuk Francis Harden Hollis, Bukit Semuja assemblyman John Ilus and Serian deputy Resident Mastapha Julaihi were among those who attended the meeting.
Uggah added that similar committee at the divisional level, chaired by the respective Resident, had also been formed with similar task and to coordinate with the agencies carrying out the programmes in their respective areas. Uggah, also Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture and Rural Economy, added that RM1.5 billion had been allocated for 2016 and 2017 to bring economic activities to the rural areas with the objective of reducing poverty.
Poverty in rural areas stands at 1.6 per cent, compared to 0.5 per cent in urban areas. In Sarawak as a whole, the rate is 0.9 per cent.
“I have full confidence that poverty in rural areas can be eradicated if we make a concerted, intensified and coordinated effort to address the issue,” Uggah said.