U.N. PRAISE MALAYSIA‘S IMPRESSIVE RECORD IN REDUCING POVERTY

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia received thumbs up from the United Nations (UN) for having made impressive strides in reducing poverty since achieving independence in 1957.
Today Malaysia is considered as a upper middle income country with high human development index.
United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter said between 1995 and 2012, the incidence of aggregate Malaysian poverty was reduced from 8.9 to 1.7 percent and urban poverty reduced from 3.7 percent to 1.0 percent.
The rural poverty, a major cause of concern at one time, was reduced from 15.3 percent to 3.4 percent.

“Disparities in income levels amongst Malaysia’s 13 states and three Federal Territories have also been narrowing. The poorest state, Sabah has experienced the highest reduction in poverty, from 19.7 percent in 2009 to 6.1 percent in 2012.

• “The number of people living in hardcore poverty, unable to meet their basic food needs, has decreased from 0.7 percent in 2009 to 0.2 percent in 2012,” he told a press conference at the end of his first official visit to the country, here recently.
• During his nine-day visit to assess the realisation of the right to food in Malaysia, De Schutter held consultations with a number of ministries and consulted broadly across the civil society.
• De Schutter’s report would be presented on March 10, 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland to the 47-member Human Rights Council.
• He said since 1970 the economy has gradually transformed from being based on primary production (agrarian) to a diversified one with secondary (manufacturing and production of processed goods) and tertiary (services) sectors being the dominant ones.

Olivier De Schutter(photo) said, Agriculture, which accounted for more than 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1985, dropped to 7.3 per cent in 2012, surpassed by other sectors of the economy including services (56.4 percent), manufacturing (24.9 percent) and mining and quarrying (8.4 percent) of GDP. 

By moving away from agriculture Malaysia has seen a rapid growth in urbanisation, between 1970 and 2010 the proportion of the population living in urban areas increased 
from 27 percent to 71 percent, Olivier added.

Source: Bernama