By Alang Bendahara
SHAH ALAM, July 27 — The First Selangor Plan (RS-1) will focus on social welfare, eradication of poverty and affordable housing in order to improve the people’s well-being.
Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said Selangor aims to reduce poverty rates across the board in the state over the next five years.
“Selangor has the second-highest Consumers Price Index (CPI) in the country in 2020 and registered the third-highest inflation rate in 2019. This indicates living costs are on the rise in the state.
“The main drive for this strategy to help Selangor citizens overcome inflation and the rising living costs is Bantuan Kehidupan Sejahtera Selangor (Bingkas), a financial aid programme to reduce the burden of these costs on low-income families by channelling RM300 monthly to eligible households,” he said when the tabling of the RS-1 during the Selangor State Legislative Assembly on July 27.
Amirudin added that under RS-1 the state will focus on promoting entrepreneurship skills to help this group raise their living standards, through the Hijrah Selangor scheme that offers micro-credit financing between RM1,000 to RM100,000, with repayment set between six months and three years.
The 2022 Selangor Budget allocated RM120 million for the specific purpose of financing entrepreneurs and creating a new scheme under Hijrah.
The new schemes include i-Bisnes, Zero to Hero, Niaga Darul Ehsan (NaDI), Go Digital, i-Lestari, i-Agro and i-Bermusim, all of which are aimed at empowering entrepreneurs in Selangor.
The Menteri Besar said RS-1 will also focus on increasing home ownership and creating safe cities in Selangor.
“RS-1 will focus on enhancing urban safety by increasing surveillance to monitor crime, using smart technology and conducting crime awareness campaigns,” he said.
Amirudin said the five-year plan will address three issues plaguing affordable homes, which are the mismatching of houses on offer and in demand, as well as the location and difficulty in obtaining loans.
“Selangor will address this by increasing the construction of Rumah Idaman and Rumah Selangorku Harapan, which has been met with encouraging responses.
“To solve the financing issue, the state is actively pursuing cooperation with financial institutions, especially banks, to create a special financing system for Selangor’s people to own homes,” he said.
On July 13, Amirudin said the state government has constructed a total of 130,545 affordable housing units to ensure Selangor residents possess comfortable homes.
He said of this figure, 78,132 were built for Rumah Selangorku Idaman through 31 projects while 52,413 were built for Rumah Selangorku Harapan through 45 projects.
