The Perak Menteri Besar and the State Secretary greeting guests present after the dialogue programme.

IPOH, 9 September 2022 - Food security and social wellbeing of the community, especially care of the elderly and orphans were among the issues raised in the 2023 Perak Budget Dialogue Programme at the Perak State Secretariat Banquet Hall.

Perak Menteri Besar Dato' Seri Saarani Mohamad who chaired the dialogue, said that as stated by HRH Sultan of Perak, food security is a major issue now.

"I hope that related parties such as the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, State Agriculture Development Corporation and Darul Ridzuan Institute will emphasise on this issue as the question now is how we want to tackle this ongoing crisis.

"The State Economic Planning Unit Director Halizah Sipun and I are ready to review the allocations needed to deal with this issue," he said.

Meanwhile, in terms of social wellbeing, he agreed with the view that we should not overlook the need to care for the elderly and orphans.

"With regards to social wellbeing, in the previous budget, we have provided funding for schooling and cost of living aid for the guardians of orphans who lost their parents due to COVID-19.

"But, I understand that it is not enough because from time to time, we need to see that this welfare effort is not managed by volunteers only. The government also needs to take this matter seriously," he said while speaking at the programme.

Also present were State Secretary Dato' Ahmad Suaidi Abdul Rahim, State Financial Officer Mohd Zaki Mahyudin, 59 State Assemblymen as well as 17 state government agencies.

Mohd Zaki Mahyudin also presented the current financial position. In fact, the state government welcomes all suggestions for state development, including improvement of existing projects or programmes to be considered in the 2023 Budget.

Source : Corporate, SUK Perak.