Chief minister Hajiji Noor said changes in poverty status could result from changes in the number of household members, income, assistance received, and other factors such as relocations or deaths.

“The state government has established a hardcore poverty eradication technical committee to coordinate and monitor the hardcore poverty eradication programme in Sabah by 2024 or 2025.

“This programme will cover five main aspects, namely employment, entrepreneurship, housing, education and welfare,” he said in reply to a question from Alias Sani (Warisan-Sekong) about the steps taken by the state government to uplift Sabah from its status as Malaysia’s poorest state.

Hajiji said the assistance would involve the coordination of various state and federal government agencies, private companies, and industry players.

“So far, 27 agencies have pledged their commitment to this programme, comprising 10 Sabah ministries, nine state government agencies, seven federal government agencies and one industry player,” he said.

He also reiterated the Sabah government’s commitment to tackling poverty through the Sabah Maju Jaya Development Plan 1.0 2021-2025, in line with the federal government’s desire to end hardcore poverty in Malaysia.

Hajiji said the calculation of Malaysia’s poverty rate was measured based on the poverty line income (PLI) for absolute poverty and the food PLI for hardcore poverty.

“Beginning this year, the implementation of the poverty programme will use the 2022 PLI, which was increased from RM2,537 to RM2,742, while the food PLI was raised from RM1,179 to RM1,218.”