PM Najib Announces 11 People-friendly Measures On 100th Day In Office

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak on Saturday announced 11 "people-friendly" measures in conjunction with his first 100 days in office as the prime minister, among them discounts for frequent users of toll roads, ownership of public housing to those renting them, and a new unit trust scheme.

Speaking at the "100 Days of Najib with the People" function at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) here, Najib said a 20 per cent discount would be given to users of the pre-paid Smart Tag and Touch n Go cards who pay toll 80 times or more in a month.

He said this was an interim solution pending the completion of a comprehensive study on the toll rates, which he felt would take time.

Najib said he had come to know that some users of toll roads paid about RM300 in toll a month out of their RM3,000 monthly salary, and added that these people only earned 11 months salary in a year because one month's salary went totally to toll payment.

"I believe this (discount) will come as a relief to the people, particularly those who use toll roads daily," he said to the applause of the more than 5,000 people inside and outside the packed convention centre.

In his 50-minute speech which he began at 11.11am to signify the first 100 days in office as the prime minister following his appointment on April 3, Najib also announced that people renting public housing in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur would be given the opportunity and option to buy the living quarters.

He said 44,000 units of such houses were being offered for sale and that this would enable people of the low-income group to own houses.

Another of the people-friendly measures was the reduction by half of the licence renewal fee for hawkers and petty traders in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.

Najib said an appeal for the licence fee to be reduced was made at a function he attended with the Federation of Malay Hawkers and Petty Traders Associations of Malaysia in Tanjung Karang, Selangor, last month.

"This will bring much relief. I hope the states will also emulate the example of the Federal Territory. Hopefully, other licence fees will also be reduced," he said.