Over RM21bil poured into NCER, says PM

 

Ismail Sabri Yaakob says manufacturing remains a key sector for the NCER, contributing 32% of the region’s gross domestic product.

PETALING JAYA: Over RM21 billion has been invested in the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), surpassing the target of RM16 billion, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said.

Manufacturing, he said, remained a key sector for the NCER, contributing 32% of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Ismail said approved investments in the sector increased by 304% to RM47.91 billion in the first half of 2021 from RM11.8 billion recorded in the second half of 2020.

NCER’s external trade, Ismail said, increased RM191.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021.

He credited the increased investments to the strategic development plan by the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA), saying it had borne fruit.

Investments in the region would also create a total of 23,506 jobs, he said.

“Over 65,000 people, including women, youth and the Orang Asli community, have benefitted from NCIA’s rakyat-centric human capital programmes to overcome challenges of the pandemic,” he said in a statement today.

These programmes would continue throughout the 12th Malaysia Plan, in line with its aim of hardcore poverty eradication by 2025, he added.

Ismail said more than 12,000 hardcore poor and poor households listed under the eKasih and iDamak database had benefitted from the Kasih Ibu NCER programme in Kedah, Perak and Perlis through assistance in purchasing basic necessities and healthcare.

“To date, almost 600 of these recipients have been integrated into the empowerNCER and JomNiaga@NCER programmes and they are now generating income of their own.”

EmpowerNCER is a skills and entrepreneurship programme, while JomNiaga@NCER is meant to address the impact of the pandemic by providing incentives to companies to create jobs. - FMT