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April 28, 2009 17:37 PM
M'sia's Poverty Eradication Programme Successful, Says Shafie
LANGKAWI, April 28 (Bernama) -- Rapid economic growth over the last several decades helped the country reduce the poverty rate from 58.7 per cent in 1970 to just 7.1 per cent in 2007 while the hardcore poverty rate stood at only 1.4 per cent now, said Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
He said now the focus was to eradicate hardcore poverty affecting some 30,000 people by next year.
"The main challenge is to build the foundation and a strong infrastructure to put the socio-economic standing of this group on the right track," he said at a dialogue session on poverty eradication in rural areas, here today.
Shafie said the thrust of implementation to alleviate the problem would involve three aspects, namely ensuring the target group received quality education including vocational training and also retraining, provision of more job opportunities and soft loans to start small businesses.
-- BERNAMA
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