Category: General

KOTA BHARU, July 27 (Bernama) — The government through the Home Affairs Ministry (KDN) has allocated RM40 million over a four-year period starting this year for the Safe City Programme under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP).

Deputy Director General (Development) of the Town and Country Planning Department (PLANMalaysia) Hassan Yaakob said that the allocation has been distributed to 24 local authorities (PBT) across the country.

He said PLANMalaysia will coordinate by assessing whether the project proposed by PBTs is suitable for the programme in line with the guidelines set by the department.

“For example, there are PBTs that have requested allocation for walkways to avoid accidents or crimes in ‘hot’ areas.

“Usually the data is provided by the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM),” he told reporters after attending a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme at Pantai Kundor here today.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

SHAH ALAM, July 27 (Bernama) — The First Selangor Plan (RS-1) 2021-2025, which is the framework for mobilising state policy for a period of five years, involves projects and initiatives worth a total of RM212.44 billion.

Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said of that amount, RM92.44 billion was for development projects at the state level with allocations coming from the state government, subsidiaries and private funding.

“For state-level development, an allocation of RM7.16 billion will be from the state government acting as seed capital and catalyst for the implementation of 262 initiatives under RS-1.

“While RM34.26 billion involves development projects (allocated) under the state government subsidiaries and RM51.02 billion involves private financing,” he said in a press conference after presenting RS-1 at the Selangor State Assembly here today.

Amirudin said the remaining amount would include infrastructure projects at the federal level, such as the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), Light Rail Transit (LRT) and High-Speed ​​Rail Transit (MRT), worth more than RM120 billion in Selangor.

He said the RS-1 five-year planning effort will focus specifically on economic growth, empowering the people through welfare programmes, sustainable development, and efficient, transparent systems and services.

“This planning is expected to meet Selangor’s desire as a state that contributes 30 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025,” he said.

Currently, Selangor contributes about 24.8 per cent to the country’s GDP.

Amirudin said RS-1 has placed 14 macro indicators as overall achievement indicators for strategic themes to ensure that the strategies and initiatives implemented can be evaluated in terms of their success.

“Among the main targets to be achieved by 2025 is state GDP growth of 6.5 to 7.0 per cent per year; approved investments for main and sophisticated sectors amounting to RM25 billion to RM35 billion a year, and the total employment opportunities targeted between 3.5 and 3.8 million people, equivalent to about 97 per cent of the total labour force in Selangor,” he said.

RS-1 also includes four strategic themes, namely economic strengthening, improving social inclusiveness and people’s well-being; sustainability drive and smart and effective governance; five policy catalysts and 262 projects and initiatives that include 19 change drivers or “game changer projects” for the state.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Bernama) — Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) assures that the electricity supply in this country is reliable and stable because supply disruptions can be restored quickly.

TNB president and chief executive officer Datuk Baharin Din said the assurance was proven when power in several areas in Peninsular Malaysia this afternoon was quickly restored by TNB’s technical team following a blackout.

Apart from that, he said the national grid itself has smart features that facilitate the work of tracing and restoring supply.

“We have been able to solve the problem of disruption in a reasonable period, and there are even areas that recovered within 20 minutes after the supply was cut off.

“The restoration of supply could be implemented efficiently as a result of TNB’s continuous investment in modernising the grid including digitising it so that the supply network is more stable, flexible and consistent,” he said in a statement today.

TNB said the electricity supply disruption which occurred in several areas in Peninsular Malaysia from 12.39 pm this afternoon was caused by an equipment failure at Yong Peng North main input substation (PMU) in Yong Peng, Johor.

Referring to the incident, Baharin said the PMU breakdown was an isolated case and did not involve any damage and was fully operational.

“Our ability to restore supply today is due to TNB’s large and continuous investment to upgrade the system with the support of the Energy Commission (ST) and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources,” he said.

Baharin also apologised to all users involved in the supply disruption and said he will conduct a detailed investigation with ST to take preventive measures and improvement efforts.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Bernama) — The Control of Tobacco Product and Smoking Bill 2022 which provides for, among others, the prohibition of smoking, buying or possessing tobacco products or smoking devices by individuals, born in 2007 onwards, was tabled for its first reading in the Dewan Rakyat today.

According to Section 17 of the proposed act, no person who was born on Jan 1, 2007 onwards shall smoke any tobacco product or substitute tobacco product; use any smoking device; or possess any tobacco product, smoking substance, substitute tobacco product or smoking device.

“Any person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding RM5,000,” it reads.

Individuals born on Jan 1, 2007 onwards who purchase tobacco products, smoking substance and substitute tobacco products or smoking devices may face a fine not exceeding RM5,000, if convicted.

The bill also proposes a ban on the sale of tobacco products, smoking substance or artificial substitute tobacco products to individuals born on Jan 1, 2007 and onwards as well as prohibiting the products from being given as a gift or prize.

Those found guilty of selling any tobacco product, smoking substance, substitute tobacco product or smoking device to individuals who were born before Jan 1, 2007 and are yet to reach 18 years old on the date the act comes into force, are liable to a fine not exceeding RM10,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both, upon conviction.

Any person who was born before Jan 1, 2007 and has not reached 18 years old years old on the date the act is enforced, is not allowed to purchase tobacco products, smoking substance, substitute tobacco products or smoking devices.

Those found guilty of committing the offence shall, upon conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding RM1,000.

On the control of the sale of the product, the bill provides for a fine of not more than RM20,000 or imprisonment not more than a year or both against individuals who sell or display tobacco products, smoking substance, substitute tobacco products or smoking devices to those born on Jan 1, 2007 onwards.

Individuals found to have committed a second and subsequent offence of selling and displaying tobacco products to individuals born on Jan 1, 2007 onwards may face a maximum fine of RM30,000 or a jail term of not more than two years or both.

For corporate bodies that commit the offence for the first time, they can be fined not less than RM20,000 and not more than RM100,000 or imprisoned for not more than two years or both.

For the second and subsequent offences, they can be fined not less than RM50,000 and not more than RM300,000 or imprisoned for not more than two years or both.

For enforcement purposes, authorised officers are allowed to open any baggage, package, or any other container and examine tobacco products, smoking substance, substitute tobacco products, smoking devices or their imitations contain therein.

According to the bill, an authorised officer may search and seize without a warrant if he has reasonable grounds to believe that a delay in obtaining a search warrant will adversely affect the investigation.

The bill was tabled by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who said that the second reading will be done in this current meeting.

Also tabled for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat today was Food (Amendment) Bill 2022.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Bernama) — The retail price of RON97 will drop by 10 sen from RM4.65 to RM4.55 per litre, while those of RON95 petrol and diesel will remain unchanged for the week from July 28 to Aug 3.

The Finance Ministry in a statement today said the price of RON95 petrol and diesel will remain at RM2.05 per litre and RM2.15 per litre respectively albeit the real market price of the two products had risen beyond the current ceiling price to protect consumers from the global oil price hike.

The ministry added the prices were set based on the weekly retail prices of petroleum products in accordance with the Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM) formula.

“The government will continue to monitor the trends of global crude oil prices and take appropriate measures to ensure the continued welfare and well-being of the people,” it said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Bernama) — On July 26, ahead of the Tenth NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) Review Conference that will open on Aug 1, Soka Gakkai International (SGI) President Daisaku Ikeda has called on the five nuclear-weapon states to declare that they will never be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict: the principle of “No First Use”.

Ikeda urges the five nuclear-weapon states under the NPT to give substance to a joint statement made by their leaders on Jan 3, 2022, that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”, by declaring policies of No First Use.

According to a statement, he has proposed three points included in the Final Document of the Review Conference.

The point include that the five nuclear-weapon states pledge to continue to abide by their January Joint Statement, immediately pursuing measures to reduce the risks posed by nuclear weapons in accord with their Article VI nuclear disarmament commitments.

Ikeda, a passionate campaigner for nuclear abolition for over 60 years, also argues that commitment to No First Use would also free resources to protect people from shared threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

During the NPT Review Conference on Aug 4, the SGI will hold a side event promoting No First Use together with other like-minded organisations.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Bernama) — The sustainability of villages and rural communities will continue to be strengthened through the implementation of the Prosperous Village Aspiration programme launched by the Ministry of Rural Development (KPLB) today.

Its minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said the effort involving villages, longhouses, Orang Asli and traditional villages throughout the country was aimed at creating villages with complete infrastructure in various aspects such as basic facilities, markets, health, education, human capital, entrepreneurship and social.

“The Prosperous Village Aspiration will be developed as a comprehensive socio-economic development programme to create village communities that are resilient, initiative, self-reliant, knowledgeable and with high level of work discipline for the villages’ development and well-being, as well as becoming an attraction for the tourism industry,” he said when speaking at the launch of ‘Aspirasi Kampung Sejahtera’, here, today.

“This effort is also to ensure that the aesthetic characteristics of a village encompass its natural resources such as rivers, mountains or waterfalls that are to be preserved and not be adversely affected under any circumstances,” he added.

On villages that are still lacking in terms of development, he said implementation of the initiative could also act as a platform to identify and channel allocations to intensify development activities such as for infrastructure and Internet access.

On the Prosperous Village Aspiration Competition which is open for six months from April to October 2022, Mahdzir said KPLB has identified villages that have the potential to be featured in the Prosperous Village Aspiration context.

“This competition is open to two categories, namely, Traditional Villages and Longhouses, under the administration of the Village Development and Security Committees (JPKK) or Federal Village Development and Security Committees (JPKKP) and another category is Orang Asli Villages under the Orang Asli Village Development and Security Committees (JPKKOA),” he said.

Also present at the event were KPLB Deputy Minister I Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Mohamad, KPLB Deputy Minister II Datuk Hasbi Habibollah, and KPLB Secretary-General Datuk Ramlan Harun.

Meanwhile, on the competition, Ramlan said a total of 126 village nominations had been received from two categories involving 112 traditional villages and longhouses submitted by the state governments, and 14 nominations from the Orang Asli villages submitted by the Orang Asli Development Department (JAKOA).

“The evaluation process will begin in mid-August with the winning village to be recognised as a Prosperous Village,” he added.

Earlier, Mahdzir also chaired the 54th Coordination Meeting between the Minister of Rural Development and State Excos for Rural Development to discuss issues related to the implementation of rural infrastructure projects and the national food security strengthening programme under KPLB.

He also announced a special allocation of RM500,000 for each exco for the implementation of development projects in their respective areas.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency