KUALA LUMPUR: Urban poverty in the country is a reflection of rural poverty, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pix).
He said people leave rural areas to come and look for jobs in urban areas.
“The problem arises when they don’t have any proper qualifications or ready jobs, this becomes a problem,“ he said at the launch of the Community Development Fund at the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Forum.
He said one way to deal with this is to provide them with training and skills to meet the demand of jobs in urban areas.
Mahathir said another way of dealing with this is providing people with business skills.
Unfortunately, he said, another issue that arises from this is once they start earning enough to support their family, they are happy with it.
“They have no interest in expanding their business to make more money. This is what that is holding most of them back.
“This is happening in certain communities in the country, they are unwilling to grow their business,“ Mahathir said.
He said those operating businesses such as small and medium enterprises remain static and make no further effort to grow their business, adding it is only through educating them about the need to grow their business that change will be seen.
“This group of people need to understand that one of the ways to lift their families out of poverty is to grow and expand their business.”
Mahathir in his speech, and also during the following press conference, said the use of a single poverty line no longer works.
“We draw a line and say that those above it are no longer poor but this is not so today,“ he said, adding there is a need for a multidimensional index to determine the types of poverty and a dynamic policy to solve it.
He said the government aims to get rid of poverty by 2030 but it cannot do it alone and help from the private sector is needed.
During his speech he called on the private sector to donate to the Community Development fund run by Yayasan Sejahtera which uses community based approach to deal with poverty.
He said to date the foundation has helped over 12,000 people.
