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Ghafar Call To Bridge Rich-Poor Gap At Once

Ipoh — The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Encik Ghafar Baba said, 'At the moment, there is a wide gap in the distribution of income and property, especially with the Malays and other bumiputras. The Malays only own 1% each of the shares in public companies and industrial sector companies. In modern agricultural sector companies, the Malays and Indians each have 0.3% participation'. He also said that Mara (Council of Trust for the indigeneous people) has so far spent $73 million allotted for it under the second Malaysian Plan. Of the $353 million worth of shares reserved for Malays till the middle of 1973. only half of them were bought up.