Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today launched the nationwide 'Price Reduction' campaign, involving 10 selected supermarket chains, to help lessen the people's burden in the face of the rising
cost of living.
    
The first phase of the campaign for six months will involve supermaket chains Econsave, Mydin, KK Mart, Aeon, Aeon Big, Tesco, 99 Speedmart, NSK, Segi Fresh Mart and Giant.

These supermarket chains, operated by local and foreign companies, have more than 955 branches throughout the country.

"With this campaign, the supermarket chains involved will offer discounts of 15 to 70 percent on products," Najib said when launching the campaign at the Aeon outlet in Balakong, near Kuala Lumpur.

Among the daily necessities listed under the 'Price Reduction' campaign are fresh produce, frozen food, dried food, beverages and baby and children's items.

Also present at the launch were Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Hasan Malek and his deputy Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah.

Najib was confident that the benefit of large discounts offered by the participating outlets would be felt by the people, as consumers, hence helping them face the rising cost of living.

While emphasising the government's strong commitment to cushioning the effects of rising cost of goods, Najib also outlined four main measures taken by the government to reduce the people's financial burden and to raise their disposable income at the same time.

Opportunities to earn a higher income

These included providing opportunities for the people to improve their skills in order to earn a higher income and setting the minimum wage for workers.

Providing assistance like the 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M), which now benefited more than seven million households, book vouchers for students and the early schooling aid also helped to lessen the effects of rising cost of living.

Najib said other measures included the setting up of Kedai Rakyat 1Malayia, Menu Rakyat 1Malaysia and Klinik 1Malaysia with the cooperation of the private sector, and these offered consumers cheaper goods and services, besides the price monitoring and enforcement carried out by the relevant ministry.

He also stressed that the issue of rising costs needed to be tackled together, and Malaysia as a country that practised an open economy was naturally exposed to elements that were beyond its control and which would impact the price of goods and services in the local market.

On the campaign, Najib who is also finance minister, hoped that more companies would participate in it, in support of the government effort to help the people at large.

He said the people, as consumers, should meanwhile spend and make choices wisely to help make the campaign a success.

Earlier, Najib spent about an hour surveying the prices of goods at the Econsave and Aeon supermarkets in Balakong.

During the walkabout, Najib was told that the price of mandarin oranges imported from China had gone up due to lesser production caused by the poor weather condition. To counter this, the supermarkets also imported such oranges from Pakistan.

He said such information could be useful for consumers is making choices when buying goods.

- Bernama