Inflation a common grouse, says Najib
Najib said he was often told of rising cost of living by the people he met during walkabouts. — File picKUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has given an assurance that tackling the rising cost of living remained one of the government’s chief commitments.
“This is something that people often raised with me on my walkabouts in towns and villages across the nation.
“In fact, it has been a while to the day we made it a key area of the GTP (Government Transformation Programme), with measures to help ease the people’s burden, including the Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M), 1Malaysia Clinics and many others,” he said in his posting on the 1Malaysia.com.my blog today.
Najib said these initiatives would be expanded before the end of the year, but it was clear that more needed to be done and the government would look closely into all suggestions.
According to him, a total of 4,175 Budget suggestions and comments were collected through the Google Moderator discussion and his blog on how the government should best spend the 2013 Budget.
He said the ideas and opinions were almost five times more than last year’s budget discussion.
“I always value the input of the rakyat in decisions that affect the nation and just as you have taken your time in giving us this feedback, I am happy to share some of my insights from this exercise in return,” he added.
Najib said the second hot topic was the price of housing and this was another longstanding concern, and one that the government had taken a number of steps to address.
“Specifically, our housing policies have been aimed towards those most in need, with the 1 Malaysia Housing Programme (PR1MA) providing accessible housing to those on middle incomes and the Public Housing Project (PPR) doing likewise, for those on low incomes,” he added.
According to the prime minister, the issues were clearly close to the heart of the rakyat, but the government would not ignore the others that they had raised.
These included concerns relating to public safety, the role of youth in development, food production, and the entertainment and creative industries, all of which would be given full and proper consideration, he said.
Najib said rakyat contributions would ensure that the government could shape the budget in a way that best suited the people.
“From now until September 28 (2013 Budget), we will work hard to put together, a budget that we can all be proud of,” he said. — Bernama
