MALAYSIAN GOVT COMMITTED TO HELPING POOR REGARDLESS OF RACE, SAYS PM NAJIB

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak
says the Malaysian government is committed to helping the lower and middle
income group irrespective of race.

He said this target group included not only the rural poor but also the
urban poor.

"Let's not talk about the hardcore poor. We are talking about those earning
roughly about RM3,000 or US$1,000 a month," he said in an interview broadcast
over Bloomberg TV Friday on his achievement after two years in office.

In the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Annual Report 2010 issued
last week, the government said 99.8 per cent of abject poor households had been
eradicated from the actual target of 44,643 households.

On rolling back affirmative action for bumiputeras, Najib said the
government had made a lot of concessions in a lot of sectors.

"Now you can have as much as 100 per cent (corporate ownership). There's no
bumiputera requirement, for example, in the manufacturing sector. You can have
100 per cent equity holding by foreigners. People don't actually have all that
much complaint about the policy today," he added.