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Wednesday July 22, 2009
KUANTAN: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak will launch the East Coast Economic Region’s (ECER) latest project, an agropolitan scheme, in Pekan on Aug 4.
A total of 1,450 families will be involved in the project that adopts a comprehensive regional development approach where 700 hardcore poor families will be resettled within new areas in Tanjung Batu in Bebar and Kubang Panjang in Lepar.
The remaining 750 orang asli families will participate via an in-situ approach.
The project consists oil palm plantation and sheep rearing as primary activities which will create 5,000 jobs and boost the monthly household income of hardcore poor from RM360 to RM1,500.
According to ECER Development Council chief executive officer Datuk Jebasingam Issace John, the objectives were to help provide sustainable income to poor families and eradicate hardcore poverty by next year.
“One of the project’s key features is income will not solely be earned by the respective heads of the household but also by each member of the family through gains from secondary and support activities,” he told reporters after meeting the project’s pioneer group in Cherating here recently.
Jebasingam also said that the state government had allocated a land covering 1,825ha in Pekan for the project, which included some 1,000ha for oil palm plantation while the rest was for sheep rearing.
Source: The Star
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