KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia today shared its efforts to assist the Orang Asli community to develop their own capacity encompassing six core areas which include achieving progressive economic activity, strengthening human capital and expanding access to infrastructure.
Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the other three areas were improving the health level, cultivating traditional knowledge and heritage, and improving the government’s delivery system and good governance.
“We are of the view that an all-inclusive approach of sustainable development would create new generations of Orang Asli who are better educated and dynamic.
“Malaysia also has to ensure that the community have a better level of well-being, and their culture and heritage conserved,” he said at the United Nations World Conference on Indigenous Peoples 2014 in New York, Monday.
Mohd Shafie said taking into account the importance of preserving the cultures and traditions of the indigenous peoples in the context of a rapidly evolving socio-economic scenario in Malaysia, the government continued to provide the community with opportunities to participate in mainstream society.
The minister said among the other measures taken by the government were introducing income-generating programmes and other commercial agricultural activities for the indigenous communities to further spur their socio-economic advancement.
"At the same time, the government maintains that the indigenous peoples must be afforded the freedom of choice; whether they wish to join mainstream society or otherwie," he said.
At the conference, Mohd Shafie also shared Malaysia's success in reducing the incidence of poverty among indigenous peoples in the country since 2005.
He noted that the Orang Asli community of Peninsular Malaysia, whose incidence of poverty stood at 83.4 per cent in 2005 was reduced to 31.16 per cent by 2010, a considerable achievement in five years.
"We have set the target to further reduce the incidence of poverty among the Orang Asli to 25 per cent by 2015," he said. -- Bernama