Dato' Menteri Besar Dato' Seri Amirudin Shari berucap semasa sesi Townhall Belanjawan Negeri Selangor 2022 di Hotel Wyndham, Klang pada 9 Oktober 2021. Foto AHMAD ZAKKI JILAN/SELANGORKINI
Apart from the various initiatives and stimulus packages announced by 2 Prime Ministers during the whole pandemic period in the past 2 years, local state governments have also been finding ways to help the people with their own programs.
Selangor, for instance has recorded spending a whopping RM1.1 billion through its own economic packages, the audit comes as the state is planning for the coming budget scheduled to be unveiled after Budget 2022 by the Federal Government.
According to Menteri Besar Amiruddin Shari, the plan covered two series of the Selangor Economic Stimulus Package and the Kita Selangor Package as well as the Selangor Economic Recovery Plan to address the impact of the epidemic. Among the beneficiaries were tens of thousands of families including those who were impacted with daily food supplies where the food basket program came to aid.
"Through reports received from elected representatives and coordinators, more than 91,000 families received food baskets funded by the State Government through the economic package," he said.
In March last year, the Selangor Prihatin Economic Stimulus Package amounting to RM127.78 million was announced which was designed to benefit workers, traders and students. The second phase package announced in April worth RM272 million was to address the impact of the epidemic followed by the Economic Recovery Plan of RM55.8 million on July.
This year another package was announced under Kita Selangor Package 2.0 amounting to RM73.877 million to ease the burden of the people in managing the second lockdown that just ended. This was further enhanced with a kitty bag of RMRM551.6 million to help the low -income group, students, small entrepreneurs, farmers and tourism activisties.
Moving forward into next year, the state promises for several mega projects in the 2022 Budget that is set to increase into the state, including adding infrastructure facilities and generating employment.
"This is important because the people want to see how the government can get a start for the economic sector that has been stranded for more than eight months"- Amiruddin.
