Malaysia plans to eliminate the incidence of hardcore poverty by the year 2010, according to the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-2010) tabled Friday.

During the next five-year national development plan, the government will make renewed efforts to address social-economical imbalance, with the eradication of hardcore poverty and reduction of overall poverty as the key priorities, said the report presented by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi here.

The government targets to halve the incidence of overall poverty to 2.8 percent and to completely eradicate the incidence of hardcore poverty by 2010, said the report. It added that more attention would be given to the Bumiputera minorities in two eastern states.

To help carry out poverty reduction programs more effectively, the government will establish a national poverty database, which will integrate both rural and urban poverty registry and use a unified definition.

In addition, poverty mapping will be developed in selected areas to assist in designing better anti-poverty programs, added the report.

With theme of "Together Towards Glory, Excellence and Distinction", the ninth national plan is the first five-year development blueprint outlined by Badawi, who took over as prime minister in 2003.

Source: Xinhua