By Mustakim Ramli
SHAH ALAM, Aug 27 — The Selangor government has spent more than a quarter of the RM2.2 billion total allocation of the 2021 Selangor Budget for welfare programmes, says Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari.
The Menteri Besar said the move was to ensure no one is left behind in getting assistance from the state administration. The aid was also channelled in the form of business empowerment programmes.
“Since 2008, we have introduced various welfare programmes, which started from seven programmes and have now expanded to 33 initiatives at present.
“Previous programmes include the free water to Selangor residents, while some of the new programmes are the Roda Darul Ehsan Initiative (RiDE) and Selangor Educational Support Centre for Special Needs Children (Anis Centre),” he told the Selangor State Legislative Assembly today.
He said this while answering an oral question from Hulu Kelang state assemblyman Saari Sungib on the type and amount of assistance channelled by the state government this year.
Elaborating on business empowerment initiatives, Amirudin said the state administration had spent some RM80 million through the Kita Selangor 2.0 Package in the form of loans to 50,000 borrowers to expand their business.
“Through the RiDE initiative, we helped youth and gave them support in getting a motorcycle license as well as work in the e-hailing sector.
“The Kita Selangor 2.0 Package also focused on the importance of getting jobs for the people. Hence we organised related programmes such as the Selangor Freelance, Selangor Rakan Digital and Selangor Kerjaya because we expected many people to have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
