KUALA LUMPUR: The government's Central Database Hub (Padu) will be operational and implemented in stages starting from January, the Dewan Negara heard today.
Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said it would help the government as it formulated policies and programmes including and poverty eradication.
The programmes includes the People's Income Initiative (IPR) aimed at eradicating poverty, and received a total 132,404 applications as of Nov 21, 2023.
Of the total, 49,687 were qualified to be matched with three initiatives, namely, the Food Entrepreneur Initiative (Insan), Farming Entrepreneur Initiative (Intan) and Service Operator Initiative (Ikhsan), he said.
"We hope Padu will be able to reduce administration processes.
"It's a matter of identifying the right beneficiaries that fulfil the criteria," he said in reply to a question from Senator Dr Wan Martina Wan Yusoff.
Padu, which allows access by the public to verify personal information, integrates socio-economic information for every household in Malaysia.
It will be the most comprehensive government's database in ensuring among others a fairer distribution of targeted subsidies and identifying marginalised risk groups.
Earlier, he said the hardcore poor rate in Malaysia has seen a drop, comprising 18,445 households, from one per cent in 2020 to 0.2 per cent last year, based on the Household Income Survey (HIS).