EIGHT out of the 10 poorest districts in the country are located in Sabah, the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) report said.

The report, which was tabled in Parliament today, showed that eight of the poorest districts were in Sabah while the remaining two were in Lojing, Kelantan and Puma, Sarawak.

The eight districts in Sabah were Kudat, Kota Belud, Kota Marudu, Pitas, Beluran, Tongod, Telupid and Nabawan.

The Kudat federal constituency is represented by Deputy Finance Minister Abd Rahim Bakri, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Maximus Ongkili and Agriculture Minister Ronald Kiandee.

The information was revealed in a review of 11MP under the poverty and development section.

In the section on poverty, the 12MP report said the median monthly household income of the B40 segment increased from RM3,000 in 2016 to RM3,166 in 2019, while the mean monthly household income increased from RM2,848 in 2016 to RM3,152 in 2019.

However, it said that the poverty line income (PLI) was reviewed in 2019 to better reflect household consumption patterns and cost of living.

“Based on the 2019 PLI methodology, the national PLI was at RM2,208. The incidence of absolute poverty declined from 7.6% in 2016 to 5.6% in 2019. The incidence of absolute poverty in the rural areas was 12.4% while in the urban areas was 3.8% in 2019,” said the 12MP report. – September 27, 2021.