By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Feb 29: ‘It will be good for Sarawak’s senior citizens to enjoy 10 per cent discounts on their kolok mee or laksa at coffeeshops,’ says Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
When there are, as of March 26, 235 Kenyalang Gold Card (KGC) strategic partners throughout the state to offer discounts and rebates to KGC holders, she reminded the KGC ambassadors not to forget places like small coffee shops and eateries.
“One thing I want to remind the ambassadors of KGC is that when looking for vendors, don’t just go for the high-end ones, also try to target small coffeeshops as well because our senior citizens, they do go to these kinds of places too.
“If there is a 10 per cent discount for kolok mee or laksa together with drinks, it can be something quite significant for them too,” she said.
In Kuching, she said there is a total of 98 strategic partners who have signed up for the KGC programme. Other districts include Miri with 40 partners, Sibu (26), Bintulu (16), Samarahan (12), Limbang (11), Sarikei (9), Serian (6), Mukah (6), Sri Aman (5), Betong (4) and Kapit (2).
These figures, Fatimah added, would continue to increase over time as more business premises such as restaurants, cafes, shopping centres, hotels, pharmacies and clinics join the programme to benefit senior citizens.
Meanwhile, Fatimah noted that as of March 26, a total of 202,722 individuals have applied for KGC and it represented 64.35 per cent of the overall number of 315,000 senior citizens in Sarawak.
Besides privileges like discounts and rebates on certain products or services, she said KGC holders are also entitled to the Death Compassionate Assistance (BIK) whereby the family members of the deceased are eligible for RM3,000 aid for funeral costs.
“In 2020, there were 1,862 applications for BIK received by the ministry. From Jan 1 to March 26, 2021, there was a total of 973 of the same application.
“So, from year 2020 until March 26, 2021, the total number of applications is 2,835 which costs about RM6.9 million,” she said during the KGC strategic partners’ appreciation ceremony at Waterfront Hotel here today.
Five strategic partners including Waterfront Hotel, Everrise Plaza Merdeka, Klinik Pergigian Anmas, Fair Hill Food Kingdom and Alpro Pharmacy were invited to receive the appreciation plaques from Fatimah’s ministry.
Plaza Merdeka Holdings managing director Steve Ng, who was there to receive the plaque on behalf of Waterfront Hotel, applauded KGC’s culture in revering and honouring senior citizens as they should be regarded as hidden assets and jewels of a nation.
“This is important to all of us no matter where we come from or what race we are, whether we are Iban, Dayak, or Chinese. All our seniors are valuable and we should recognise this,” he said. — DayakDaily
