SEREMBAN: The government is committed to the welfare of the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) veterans nationwide, including prioritising housing initiatives for them.

Deputy Defence Minister Adly Zahari said the ATM Veteran Affairs Department (JHEV) has so far approved 147 applications for house repair works and another 40 for construction of new houses for the group, involving RM5.4 million allocated this year.

"This year we aim to repair 300 to 400 houses. We also allocated (to build) 40 new houses, though up to 70 applications were received. We will try to meet that requirement and increase (the allocation) every year. Last year (the allocation was for) 26 units of houses while this year we allocated 40 units, with priority being the B40 group.

"The housing aspect is important because there are some veterans who may not have their own house, that part of the pension money is used up to rent a house, that's why we introduced this programme so that the pension can be used for daily needs and not to pay rent," he said.

He said this to reporters after visiting ATM veteran Zakaria Manaf, 69, who had to use a wheelchair and crutches following a stroke five years ago in addition to prostate cancer, at his residence in Taman Desa Rhu here today.

In the meantime, Adly said that, although about 60 per cent of ATM veterans were involved in entrepreneurship as a second career, the government also gives them the opportunity to choose other careers, to further improve their socioeconomic level.

"Many people think that military veterans are those aged 60 and 70, when, in fact, there are those who are as young as 38 years old but already a veteran. Every year almost 5,000 soldiers complete their service and become veterans, so we focus on job matching, including with agencies and contractors.

"The employment sector also provides good opportunities; we provide both of these opportunities, which are entrepreneurship or other jobs to veterans, where they can choose. The most important thing is that they have income after pension and retirement," he said.

Earlier, Adly also visited and presented donations to two other military veterans in Negeri Sembilan, who are suffering from some health complications, and another veteran who is a recipient of the Veterans Housing Initiative (Bina Baharu).

-- BERNAMA