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KOTA KINABALU – Kota Marudu MP Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili has promised that efforts will be taken to get rid his constituency of the reputation of being the poorest district.
Kota Marudu is one of the districts reporting the highest poverty rate in Sabah with 46.1%
under the official poverty line.
Others include Tongod (56.6%), Pitas (53.6%), Beluran (45%) and Telupid (40.7%).
The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak affairs) said a poverty unit will be established at the state and national levels to eliminate hardcore poverty by 2025.
“On our side (Kota Marudu), we are ready to work with the special unit to eliminate hardcore poor and poor from the category,” he said during a PBS joint annual general meeting held in Kota Marudu, some 120km from here, today.
Ongkili, who is Parti Bersatu Sabah president, said the Sabah government would also emulate a similar approach and will intensify efforts to rid the state of its higher poverty rates.
Sabah’s poverty rate stood at 19.5% of the population.
As for Kota Marudu, Ongkili said, “We can promote agriculture, like coconut and durian planting, which are crops with a great market potential.”
The Sabah and Sarawak Division is also in the midst of collecting data on the poverty rate in Sabah to update the national database on poverty.
Previously, Ongkili noted that Kota Marudu is not the poorest district in Sabah. It was Tongod and Pitas, he said.
He said the economy in the lowland areas was actually strong. – The Vibes, March 14, 2022