PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi wants efforts to eradicate poverty among people living in rural areas to be increased in line with the goal and target set by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that the Rural and Regional Development Ministry as the ministry that is responsible must implement planning and programmes that are more impactful for the targeted group.
"I am hoping that the target to eradicate hardcore poverty will be implemented but we must not forget those in urban areas, also known as urban poverty.
"For that, let the other agencies responsible implement the necessary planning and programmes while we at the Rural and Regional Development Ministry need to comprehend and implement what has been set by the Prime Minister," he said when speaking during the ministry's monthly assembly here earlier today.
Ahmad Zahid, who is also the Rural and Regional Development Minister, said that the Ministrty's officers and staff as well as agencies under the purview of the ministry must ignore all the criticism hurled by those who are 'anti establishment'.
He stressed that such a group will always be around just about anywhere and they will reject efforts that are being implemented for the greater good.
"Why bother with such a group of people, those who know and appreciate will say that we are doing good, but those who do not will say otherwise," he said.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid wants Felcra Berhad (Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority) and Kesedar (The South Kelantan Development Authority) to improve efforts to increase the production of chicken and beef that they cultivate.
"Now they have managed to produce 250,000 in one cycle, so now I challenge them to increase it to one million," he said.