Student councils' views will be considered in fight against inflation - Annuar

KUALA LUMPUR: The Special Task Force on Jihad against Inflation will conduct engagement sessions with student leaders at institutes of higher learning to listen to their views on rising prices of products as well as inflation, especially relating to their standard of living.

Task force chairman, Tan Sri Annuar Musa said this was because the government understood that the campus community and students are among groups considered vulnerable and easily affected by inflation as well as rising prices of goods.

"Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (Minister in Prime Minister's Department (Economy)) will conduct a programme for continuous engagement that we will carry out together with student leadership in public and private universities.

"We have identified around 80 universities that have student bodies that will also be involved in the engagement programme," he said at a media conference at the Parliament Building after chairing the task force meeting here today.

Annuar, who is also Communications and Multimedia Minister, said the task force thanked the Ministry of Higher Education for the many steps taken, including implementing the cooked food at RM3.50 scheme at over 800 canteens and premises on campuses in the country.

Annuar also said that such engagements were also conducted with industry players to enable the task force to understand their problems better.

He explained that the task force was currently meeting with the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) to allow them to air their views and proposals about rising costs in the manufacturing sector.

He said the efforts will be followed by engagement sessions with various other associations and industry players in other sectors.

"This approach is not only an effort to control rising prices of certain products, but we must conduct engagement with larger segments in line with our focus on three scopes.

"Besides involving the scope of expenses incurred by Keluarga Malaysia for food necessities, we will also focus on expenditure for transport and housing," he said.

He added that the task force was evaluating and taking necessary action to avoid situations that would contribute to the rise in the country's inflation rate.

-- BERNAMA