PETALING JAYA: A total of RM21.41bil in investments have been made in the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), says Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
The Prime Minister, in a statement, said that this was a 34% increase from the initial target of RM16bil.
"Manufacturing remains a key sector for NCER, contributing 32% of the region's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with approved investments in the sector increasing by 304% from RM11.8bil in the second half of 2020 to RM47.91bil in the first half of 2021, signalling a long-term recovery," he said on Tuesday (Nov 16).
The Northern Corridor Implementation Authority's (NCIA) strategic role and proactive action plans towards addressing post pandemic recovery outlined in the region has also been recognised during its 27th NCIA Council Meeting chaired by the Prime Minister.
NCER's approaches include empowering vulnerable groups via rakyat-centric human capital programmes, catalysing balanced regional economic growth via strategic infrastructure, and driving private investments to address the regional imbalances.
He added that the approaches would enable the region to reach a RM300bil economy, RM10,508 of mean household income, 161,197 of cumulative job creation and a value of RM146.5bil of private investments by 2025.
"Investments in the region will also create a total of 23,506 jobs in NCER.
"In line with the Malaysian Family concept, over 65,000 people including women, youth and the Orang Asli community have benefited from NCIA's rakyat-centric human capital programmes to overcome challenges of the pandemic," he added.
The programmes will also continue throughout the 12th Malaysian Plan, in line with the aim to eradicate poverty by year 2025.
"More than 12,000 hardcore poor and poor households listed under the eKasih and iDamak database have benefitted from the Kasih Ibu NCER programme in Kedah, Perak and Perlis through assistance in purchase of basic necessities and healthcare, to ease the impact of the rising cost of living.
"To date, almost 600 of these recipients have been integrated into the empowerNCER and JomNiaga@NCER programmes and they are now generating income of their own," he said, adding that.
He added that through empowerNCER-Skills and Entrepreneurship and the JomNiaga@NCER programmes, nearly 10,000 micro-entrepreneurs and skilled workers among the B40 group would be created.
"Currently, more than 900 participants have moved out of poverty, of which 300 participants have transitioned upwards into the M40 and T20 categories.
"More than 5,000 of these local economic movers have not only managed to collectively generate approximately RM45mil income over six months, but also created more than 1,200 jobs for local communities," he said.
EntrepreneurNCER programme, provides a 50% top-up on the bank loan interest, has enabled cash-strapped micro-enterprises and SMEs (MSMEs) to sustain and grow their businesses.
"This programme has also assisted more than 5,200 MSMEs whereby RM85.9mil in financing has been approved by Maybank and AgroBank, yielding Zero Non-Performing Loans (NPL) to date," Ismail Sabri said.