Budget 2020: Mitra will focus on education, training for Indians
KUALA LUMPUR: Education and training would continue to be a major segment of the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) expenditure through the RM100 million allocation announced in the Budget 2020 last Friday.
Mitra director general M Mahalingam said the body, which focuses on solving serious issues in the community, has planned to distribute a bulk of the allocation for the two segments in an effort to uplift the community’s socioeconomic status.
“We will continue with the initiative such as the one-off financial grant assistance to students from the B40 lower-income Indian community who have been offered a place at local government institutions of higher learning.
“Besides education, Mitra would also focus on other segments such as economy and career, social, and wellbeing as well as identity and inclusion,” he told Bernama recently.
According to Mahalingam, almost 80% of the allocation under the Budget 2019 was channelled towards implementing programmes under Mitra.
He said it was clear that Budget 2020 was comprehensive, covering all sectors in the society especially addressing the high unemployment issue through the #Malaysians@Work initiative in the long term.
The Budget 2020 will provide loans of up to RM20 million under the Tekun Nasional’s Indian Community Entrepreneur Development Scheme (SPUMI), and RM50 million for the maintenance and upgrading of existing Tamil schools.
Bernama
