KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — The Economy Ministry is holding engagement sessions regarding the People’s Income Initiative (IPR) with various parties including members of parliament, district officials, local authorities and other stakeholders to ensure that this initiative can be implemented immediately throughout the country.

Deputy Economy Minister Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib said the ministry held an engagement session with the Rural and Regional Development Ministry (KKDW) regarding the Agro Entrepreneur Initiative (Intan) programme on March 30.

"The form of cooperation that will be determined is, among other things, related to the availability of land by the KKDW for the programme,” she said during the winding up of the Supply Bill 2023 for the ministry in the Dewan Negara today.

Hanifah said heads of households from the B40 group, especially the extreme poor, need to apply through the IPR website and choose the initiative they are interested to participate in for the IPR programme.

Through the IPR, a total of RM750 million had been allocated through three efforts, namely INTAN, Food Entrepreneur Initiative (Insan) and Services Operator Initiative (Ikhsan).

"Participants will be matched with the initiative they are interested in, the locality and the availability of the initiative in the locality concerned,” she said.

Hanifah emphasised that the IPR programme involves the extreme poor and the B40 group regardless of race, ethnicity and state to help increase the income of these groups in addition to helping overcome the cost of living issue and improving the economic structure at the grassroots level.

"The implementation of this IPR also involves collaboration between the ministry and strategic partners consisting of the private sector, government-related companies and higher education institutions through a whole country approach in efforts to tackle poverty and inequality,” she added.

The programme aims for participants to earn between RM2,000 and RM2,500 per month during the 24-month monitoring period, and then generate their own income through the results obtained. — Bernama