Steady income for hardcore poor from sheep-rearing
6/10/2010 -- The Star
Ten hardcore poor participants are now earning RM1,000 monthly through their involvement in sheep-rearing full-time under the East Coast Economic Region Development Council’s (ECERDC) Agropolitan Pekan project.
ECERDC chief executive officer Datuk Jebasingam Issace John said the project’s pioneer participants of 30 orang asli families who were working part time on sheep farms were seeing an average monthly income of RM600.
He was briefing members of the Implementation and Coordination Committee (ICC) on the progress of projects under the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) development masterplan at a state-level ICC meeting here on Tuesday.
“About 100 hardcore poor families within the area will be relocated to new homes in Batu 8, Lepar by end of September. The houses are currently in the advanced stage of construction.
“Another 200 houses will be built in September for Agropolitan Pekan project participants who will be working in the nearby oil palm plantation. Construction is expected to be completed by September next year,” he said.
John also told the committee that ECERDC had been entrusted by the Government to undertake the conservation of Lake Chini, with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) already appointed as the project consultant.
He said the council had been working closely with the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry as well as the state government to undertake the conservation initiatives since February.
“The measures include installing water quality and hydrology monitoring stations.
“Other plans will involve developing a fish-breeding nursery, constructing a research lab complex, replanting trees and cleaning up polluted rivers in nearby areas,” he said.
As for Kuantan Port City, he said work on the main infrastructure was going well with the water-pipe installation works in Gebeng industrial areas already completed in February.
The construction of Panching water treatment plant (Phase 1) was expected to commence next month, he said, adding that the infrastructure design works for Phase 2 of the Pekan-Peramu Automotive Industrial Park (AIP) project were also expected to commence in July.
The construction of Panching water treatment plant (Phase 1) was expected to commence next month, he said, adding that the infrastructure design works for Phase 2 of the Pekan-Peramu Automotive Industrial Park (AIP) project were also expected to commence in July.
On the human capital development programme, John said that almost 390 participants and over 30 companies in Pahang had registered under ECERDC’s Graduate Placement Opportunity (GPO) programme.
“About 1,000 participants from more than 30 companies have registered for the Employee Placement Programme (EPP), a job-matching programme.
“A total of 405 participants have been employed by participating companies,” he said.
“As for its Skills Training Programme (STP), almost 1,000 participants were now undergoing various types of skill courses in six training centres in the state,” he added.
