The Selangor government has proposed priority for welfare in its 2009 budget, tabled by Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim in the state assembly this morning.

With a total allocation of RM1.4 billion, the budget will see the implementation of welfare programmes divided into four phases comprising 18 programmes.

khalid ibrahim selangor state budget pc 120808 03 “The state government has already spent RM35 million on seven programmes that have already been implemented. These include free water , Children of Selangor Fund and allowances for university studentss,” said Khalid.

These fall under the first phase which will cost the state government RM95 million to implement in full.

The second phase, to be implemented from January, will see six programmes that will benefit civil servants, the disabled and orphans.

Provisions include 90 days of maternity leave, 14 days of paternity leave, a month’s leave in the event of the death of a husband, and financial aid for the disabled and young entrepreneurs.

In the third and fourth phase, allowances will be extended to working parents to send children to nurseries, while pre-school students will be eligible for financial help depending on household income.

“We will also set up small- and medium-scale industrial zones throughout the state and educational programmes to develop young business- minded citizens in the fourth phase,” said Khalid.

This is to help reduce the unemployment rate which stands at 3.4 percent, although it is lower than that of other states, he explained.

Eradication of poverty

Poverty eradication has been placed at the top of the to-do list. It is proposed that the eligibility criteria should be raised to RM1,500 a month from RM741 a month. The ceiling for ‘hardcore’ poverty is now RM419 a month.

poverty poor mother begging “At the old rates, the poverty rate falls at 1.1 percent while hardcore poverty rate is 0.1 percent. This does not reflect reality because 90 percent of the citizens live in urban areas,” Khalid said.

“This requires different income indicators given the average expenses. The revised ceiling will see the poverty rate rise to a staggering 30 percent. We will have a huge task to eradicate poverty but will do our best to tackle this.”

Other key objectives of the budget will be to increase state revenue, develop human capital, improve financial management and strengthen development.

Among the initiatives proposed is to double the effort to attract foreign investors through transparent and efficient governance as well as human capital development.

“We will also set up a complaints hotline and web portal (Stars) to get public feedback to increase efficiency in administrative matters,” said Khalid .

Selangor’s development budget for the coming year is estimated at RM710 million or 51 percent of the budget, while the balance of RM689 million will go to towards administration expenses.

Other main allocations:

• RM253 million for the Menteri Besar’s office and state secretariat

• RM190 million for public works

• RM103 million for Islamic affairs

• RM65.2 million for drainage and irrigation

• RM15 million for agriculture

• RM6.38 million for animal and veterinary programmes

• RM6 million for places of worship

• RM5.7 million for the forestry department

• RM2.71 million for research on town planning