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October 08, 2011 13:11 PM

Budget 2012 Puts People First, Says MCA President

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 (Bernama) -- MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek today lauded Budget 2012 which he said has come out with a slew of initiatives to address the rising cost of living as proof that the government puts the "people first".

Welcoming the budget, themed "Welfare for the Rakyat (People), Well-Being of the Nation", he said it was a "very timely and appropriate" blueprint in view of the rising cost of living worldwide.

"We laud the 'people first' initiative by the government to offer a one-off grant of RM500 to households with a monthly income of RM3,000 and below," he said in a statement.

Dr Chua said other initiatives, such as giving students money to buy books, RM100 million each for vernacular and Islamic schools and RM3,000 each to the country's former security personnel were some of the examples of a government which cared for and put the people first.

He said the MCA was also happy that the allocation of RM33.2 billion for all subsidies, incentives and assistance would be continued as this would help combat inflation.

"Although the world economy is not in good shape due to the debt crisis and financial instability, with the government's Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) in place, we are confident that we may still achieve economic growth of five per cent to 5.5 per cent next year," he said.

The MCA is convinced that the government can achieve the plan to reduce its deficit from 5.4 per cent to 4.7 per cent of GDP next year, he said.

"To stimulate the economy, the government should encourage more private and public investments (PPI) and we are optimistic that the PPI can be increased by 15.9 per cent (private investment) and seven per cent (public investment) supported by foreign investment, the ETP and the 10th Malaysia Plan," he added.

-- BERNAMA

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