No problem, it will only take a day for the Indonesians to return by boat <!RM>>

At a press conference in the Ampang Jaya municipal council this afternoon, Khir said there would be sufficient low-cost houses to accommodate squatters in the municipality. He had earlier attended a meeting with developers on the issue of relocating squatters.

Programme on track

Khir said that 8,324 units of low-cost houses have been built compared with 5,487 squatters in 52 locations around Ampang Jaya.

"Between 60 to 70 percent of the low-cost projects planned since July last year have taken off. Through our monitoring, I am confident that the squatter problem in Ampang Jaya can be resolved by 2004," he said..

This is in line with the Selangor government's policy to eliminate the squatter problem, with its latest initiative the 'zero-squatters' policy intended to be achieved by 2005. One strategy is to build more low-cost houses priced at RM35,000 each.

However, another government policy to reduce the number of Indonesian workers in Malaysia, together with the crackdown on all illegal immigrants threw into doubt the ability of the construction industry to deliver housing units on schedule.

With the end of an amnesty period on July 31, there was a massive exodus of foreign workers to their home countries. The local construction industry immediately claimed to be at a standstill.

Asked if the shortage of workers would affect the construction of low-cost houses, Khir said this was no longer an issue.

"The government has decided to allow the Indonesian workers to return. Tomorrow, they will be back. It only takes one day by boat. There is no problem," he said.

Large squatter population

Selangor, one of most industrialised states in Malaysia, also has the largest squatter population, currently estimated at more than 40,000. Many of the settlements mushroomed during the rural-urban migration drift of the early 1970s. .

Although the state has periodically resorted to forced eviction of squatters, the situation became more acute in the mid-1990s when private developers began acquiring land for property development.

The relocation of squatters has lagged behind the availability of low-cost houses since the Third Malaysia Plan (1976-1980).