Mustapa: Govt commited to eradicating poverty, provide targeted aid

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said there is no one size fits all solution for poverty eradication and the government is morally obliged to eradicate poverty particularly among the hardcore poor.

"It is a complex issue. There are some data problems and some improvements (being made). We are trying our best in order to centralise the government data so that we can set the target assistance.

"There is going to be a better collaboration between the government and the private sector. I'm going to set up a poverty circle chaired by myself," he said during his closing remarks at the Malaysia Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) webinar held today.

Mustapa pointed out that the poverty issue was a "tough nut to crack" especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In July last year, the Department of Statistics announced that Malaysia's Poverty Line Income has been revised to RM2,208 from RM980 based on the calculations from the 2019 methodology.

Mustapa said the government is finalising its Voluntary National Review, which is expected to be presented at the High-level Political Forum of the United Nations on July 15.

He noted that the report highlighted success stories and some challenges in meeting SDGs but Malaysia had done well in poverty eradication.

"We have done well in eradicating poverty but we still have a long way to go as this is further exacerbated by the current pandemic. We have to figure out some long-term solutions," he added.