The cost of living in Malaysia is the lowest among Asean member countries, according to the survey on the cost of living around the world in 2017 by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said it was the result of various efforts undertaken by the government in reducing the burden of the cost of living in the country.

The survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit compared the prices of goods and services in 133 cities around the world.

"However, I want to stress here that this recognition does not mean that our efforts to reduce the burden of the rising cost of living have been completed," he said in his latest blog post titled 'Prime Minister's Speech on the Quality of People's Life on najibrazak.com.

Najib said the issue of the rising cost of living was the government's priority in a bid to transform Malaysia as a fully developed high-income nation.

"We have done a lot of work to ease the people's burden related to the rising cost of living. Among the efforts are the price control of goods by the authorities, the distribution of BR1M (1Malaysia People's Aid), eradication of middlemen and so on," he said.

The prime minister also said the government had always been trying to improve people's income through various training and education programmes.

These were the National Entrepreneur Group Economic Fund (Tekun Nasional ); Retail Shop Transformation Programme (Tukar); Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju); Bumiputera Entrepreneurs Startup Scheme (Superb); Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara); Young Entrepreneurs Fund; and e-Rezeki and Facilitation Fund.

In terms of cost control, Najib said the government would continue implementing programmes such as the 1Malaysia People's Shop (KR1M); 1Malaysia Housing Programme (PR1MA); 1Malaysia Clinics and 1Malaysia Book Voucher.

"I really hope these programmes can help improve the quality of people's life because that's what I try to do every day as a prime minister," he said.

- Bernama