KUALA TERENGGANU, June 18 — About 7,000 participants from the B40 group have benefitted from the Urban Community Economic Empowerment Programme (PEKB) supervised by the Housing and Local Government Ministry since it was introduced in 2013.

Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ismail Abd Muttalib said the programme, which offered 14 entrepreneurship and business training courses to the B40 group living in urban areas, had helped the participants to generate a higher income and uplift their living standards.

"We have created a training scheme at PEKB specifically for B40 in urban areas so that they can increase their income and grow their business.

"That is why we not only provide courses but also equipment for them to start a business or increase the production capacity,” he told reporters after officiating the closing ceremony of a PEKB course, here today.

In the meantime, Ismail urged non-governmental organisations (NGOs) appointed by the ministry to continuously monitor the participants’ progress so that the PEKB programme would be able to achieve its target.

He said so far, the appointed NGOs only conducted monitoring and evaluation for six months after the participants attended the PEKB skills training course.

Earlier, Ismail presented certificates of participation to 130 PEKB participants from Terengganu, Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan under the supervision of an NGO, Persatuan Nurani Rakyat Malaysia. — Bernama