He made the announcement when opening MIC’s 75th general assembly, responding to a request from party president SA Vigneswaran, who had earlier said a bigger allocation would allow more Indians to further their studies and improve the well-being of their families.
AIMST University is a private university established by MIC’s Maju Institute of Educational Development. The university, located in Sungai Petani, Kedah, offers medical, science and technology courses.
Ismail also announced that a special committee on the development of the Indian community would be set up by the Cabinet.
Through the national unity ministry, an Indian community action plan (PTMI) will be launched, he said, setting out various short- and long-term targets.
“I agree with (Vigneswaran’s) suggestion that a special Cabinet committee for the Indian community should be formed,” Ismail said.
He said the action plan will be improved from time to time in line with the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) and the 2022 budget.
This year, he said, the government had provided assistance of RM8.4 million to the B40 group and a RM1 million prihatin special grant to micro, small and medium enterprises (SME).
“This aid covers 7.6% or 640,000 B40 households from the Indian community and 8% or 80,000 Indian micro SMEs. With this, the community stands to receive benefits of more than RM600 million from Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia in 2022,” he said.
A RM100 million allocation will be given next year to the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit for various programmes such as education financial aid for the Indian B40 community, entrepreneurship capacity development, and welfare assistance.
A RM25 million allocation will be channelled through Tekun Nasional to provide easy loans of up to RM100,000 at an interest rate as low as 4% a year for small enterprises, and RM25 million to the human resources development corporation for skills training for Indian B40 youths.
The Education Ministry will allocate RM35 million for maintenance of Tamil primary schools. Ismail said equitable allocations would be given to every school, national or vernacular or other schools.