“Malaysia Has the Lowest Poverty Rate in Southeast Asia,” Says Minister

These are some interesting statistics!

Communications and Multimedia Minister, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak recently stated that Malaysia has reportedly emerged as the country with the lowest poverty rate in comparison to other Southeast Asian countries.

Referring to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook 2017, it was reported that 3.8 per cent of Malaysia’s population falls below the poverty line.

Meanwhile, Vietnam and Indonesia were at 11.3 per cent, Thailand at 12.6 per cent, the Philippines at 25.2 per cent, and Myanmar at 32.7 per cent, making Malaysia with the lowest percentage of people in poverty, according to the Malay Mail Online.

Source: ecomatt

An excerpt from his blog post addressing Malaysia’s economic growth in 2017 reads,

“Samuel P. Huntington states in his book, ‘Political Order in Changing Societies’, that one way we can assess a country’s political development is to look at its economic growth. The measurement index he uses is per capita income and poverty rates.”

“What about our country? One thing for certain is that our achievements differ from perceptions of those who think we are falling behind. This is because existing data shows that we have achieved a good level of economic growth compared to neighbouring countries.”

“If compared to other countries with a high poverty line like Syria (82.5 per cent), Madagascar (75.3 per cent) and Zimbabwe (72.3 per cent), I feel grateful over Malaysia’s success in ensuring the well-being of the people.”

Source: mmo

On top of us supposedly being the country with the lowest poverty rate in Southeast Asia, our per capita Gross Domestic Product (USD$27,200; approx. RM111,000) is reportedly much better than that of Thailand (USD$16,800; approx. RM68,577), Indonesia (USD$11,700; approx. RM47,759), the Philippines (USD$7,700; approx. RM31,431), Vietnam (USD$6,400; approx. RM26,124), Myanmar (USD$6,000; approx. RM24,492), and Laos (USD$5,700; approx. RM23,267).

“With the government’s efforts to help make us a high-income nation, I am confident that 2018 promises better lives for Malaysians.”

If you want to see Malaysia’s full profile in this year’s CIA World Factbook for yourself, check it out here.

What do you think of the Datuk Seri Salleh Said’s statement? Let us know in the comments below!

Also read: Perkasa Says 95% Poverty Cases in Malaysia Involve Bumiputeras