KUCHING: Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah have urged Kenyalang Gold Card (KGC) applicants to ensure that their application forms are completely filled to facilitate processing.
“Applicants should also check their eligibility before applying for KGC. They have to be aged 60 and above to qualify,” she said at the KGC and Death Compassionate Assistance (BIK) handover ceremony at Wisma Kebajikan here yesterday.
She assured that the KGC programme was still on and they were still receiving applications.
“As of May 18, we have received 146,876 applications for KGC,” she said.
She reiterated that KGC was the state government’s initiative to help senior citizens by providing various facilities and benefits in the form of discounts, rebates, and so on for goods and services from numerous organisations, government agencies, and commercial sectors.
Besides this, she said the programme also gave the opportunity to corporate bodies to contribute back to the community.
“Thus far, 56 vendors, companies, and government agencies have become KGC strategic partners and offered various facilities,” she said, adding that the ministry’s efforts to seek more partners had been put on hold due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
KGC was officially launched by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg on March 9, providing special discounts and privileges for senior citizens in sectors such as health services, public transport, essentials, optical services, self-care services and recreational parks.
Fatimah said that the ministry would seek more strategic partners to provide these benefits for senior citizens.
During the ceremony, she handed over 180 KGCs to Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Batu Lintang branch chairman Sih Hua Tong, to be distributed to the respective applicants.
Meanwhile, she also presented BIK of RM3,000 to Rizam Rohiman, the next-of-kin of Rohiman Sawio. The latter was a KGC-holder who had passed away on March 10 of a heart attack.
Also present at the ceremony were the Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Ministry’s permanent secretary Dr Saadiah Abdul Samat, Social Welfare Department acting director Mohamad Guntor Rajaee, and Socoe Sdn Bhd chief executive officer JW Sam.
