Sarawak, Penang to get greater focus in Malaysia fertility push, says women’s minister

KUCHING, Sept 19 — Sarawak and Penang will receive greater focus under the government’s efforts to improve Malaysia’s fertility rate and address the country’s low birth rate, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.

She said the ministry planned to place greater emphasis on fertility-related programmes next year, including measures to support couples facing difficulties conceiving.

“Fertility programmes are important because our population is still low and we want to increase it. So we have also proposed programmes related to fertility.

“Sarawak and Penang are among the states that need to be given focus because we want to increase the birth rate,” she told reporters after launching the Program Perantisan Kepimpinan Wanita (Perantis) — Program Pembinaan Kepimpinan dan Keusahawanan Wanita Dayak (Pendaya) 2.0 initiative at Dayak Chamber Tower here today.

Nancy said the ministry’s efforts would include programmes to assist couples facing difficulties having children, including initiatives under the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN), such as in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).

She said while such programmes were already being implemented, the ministry intended to give them greater emphasis next year as part of efforts to encourage more young people to have children.

“For us, our focus is more on programmes that can encourage them to have children. Our population needs to increase in this country,” she said.

Nancy said proposals for fertility-related programmes had been included in the ministry’s budget submission, although the final allocation would depend on approval.

She added that studies had also been conducted on fertility rates to support efforts to formulate measures to increase birth rates in Malaysia.

However, she said the figures and findings from the studies would be shared at a later date. — The Borneo Post