KUALA LUMPUR: The government is targeting to increase the income among participants in the People's Income Initiative (Inisiatif Pendapatan Rakyat or IPR) to RM2,000 monthly, subsequently improving the people's livelihoods and eradicating poverty.
Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the target was set based on a survey conducted by his ministry based on the national poverty line.
Proposed under the revised 2023 Budget, Rafizi said IPR was an initiative that involved the collaboration of the government and several strategic partners to increase the income of people living in hardcore poverty, poverty as well as people in the B40 income group.
"The ministry has carried out preliminary 'modelling' (over the implementation of IPR). If we looked at all three modules, agro entrepreneurs would take longer to generate and increase their income," he said.
He was referring to the three modules under the IPR initiative, namely the Agro Entrepreneur Initiative (Intan), Food Entrepreneur Initiative (Insan) and Services Operator Initiative (Ikhsan).
Intan is an initiative to recruit targeted groups who are interested in taking part in agriculture by focusing on crops with high yield import value such as chilli, ginger and corn.
Insan is an initiative focusing on attracting people who are interested to venture in the food industry. Under the initiative, participants will sell the food at an affordable price using new approaches such as the use of vending machines.
As of Ikhsan, it is an initiative aimed at recruiting people who are interested to work as cleaners in effort to reduce the shortage of workers involved in the maintenance of public facilities.
"We have taken into account assistance needed during the monitoring period of 24 months which includes providing land, training infrastructure and other forms of temporary allowances," he told reporters after the launching of the IPR initiative in Ampang here today.
Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari and his counterpart from Negri Sembilan, Datuk Seri Aminuddin Harun were present.
"The same is applicable with Insan. For example, the selling of food as low as RM2 using a vending machine will not only reduce prices of food items but also lessen the cost of living," he said.
Rafizi explained IPR was an ecosystem involving three groups namely recipients, mentors and business partners.
Under the IPR ecosystem, he said, recipients of the initiative referred to people living with hardcore poverty or those in the B40 income bracket.
He said the government was targeting 100,000 people living in hardcore poverty and from the B40 income group to participate in IPR this year.