Budget 2018: Najib tells Indian community: 'Naa-leh nama-they'

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak grabbed the attention of the local Indian community while tabling Budget 2018 when he listed a number of incentives and programmes to enhance their well-being.
As he took centre stage in parliament yesterday, the Prime Minister diverted for a moment to wish the community "Valthukal" in conjunction with Deepavali, the festival of lights which was celebrated last week.
He went on to assert that no group would be left out in the development of the country and that Malaysia's future belonged to all the races.
"Naa-leh nama-they" (Tomorrow is ours)," he said in Tamil.
Najib who had often expressed his desire to uplift the living standard of the community noted that the average monthly income of an Indian household had increased significantly to 6.8% per annum.
To this end, he said, the government had channelled RM50 million to Tabung Ekonomi Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (Tekun) to assist more than 35,000 entrepreneurs and injected an additional RM50 million into the Indian community's socioeconomic development programme.
A new initiative was also introduced for the Indian community amounting to RM1.5 billion in the form of additional units of Amanah Saham 1Malaysia, which is limited to 30,000 units per investor.
The prime minister also reiterated that new intake of Indians to public higher learning institutions and public service would be increased to a targeted seven per cent as charted in the Malaysian Indian Blueprint that he recently launched. — Bernama