Najib: Endeavour to increase income, sharpen skills

The prime minister says the government will continue to assist in various ways, but the people must do their part as well.

KUALA LUMPUR: In line with Malaysia’s objective towards becoming a developed nation, the people must think of ways to increase their income instead of depending fully on the government’s intervention to control the market, Prime Minister Najib Razak said today.

Najib said that while the government continued to assist in various ways, the people had to work at increasing their income and sharpening whatever skills they presently had.

“The government has provided numerous facilities to improve knowledge and obtain business funds to increase the people’s income.

“Examples of such programmes are Tekun, Mara, Teraju, SUPERB, the 1Malaysia Hawkers’ Programme, the Youth Economic Fund, the Income Raising Programme and many others,” he said in his latest blog entry.

Najib said the government had also assisted in creating job opportunities when it introduced the 1Malaysia Training Scheme, Bumiputera Education Steering Foundation and 1Azam.

The Prime Minister said the cost of living had become a hot issue not only in Malaysia but all over the world due to the current global economic recession.

As such, he said, the government had introduced two ways to overcome this problem by increasing income and reducing the cost of goods.

“Although the government has given subsidies and implemented cost reductions for essential items, however, what is more important is (for the people) to raise income levels as this will guarantee a better standard of living in the long term,” he said. -FMT