KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC has engaged Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) to assist the party in drawing up its recommendations for the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), its president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said on Thursday.

He said the MIC enlisted the help of a consultant group comprising academicians from UKM's Institute of Ethnic Studies (IES) to sharpen the party's recommendations with their research input.

Samy Vellu said although the consultant group had gone through the draft of the 10MP in drawing up MIC's recommendations, the party also wanted to "engage in consultations" with Indian community leaders and concerned citizens' group to fine tune its proposals.

"We need your input to formulate this document of recommendations into a credible input," he said at the "National Consultation on Malaysian Indians and the Tenth Malaysia Plan (2011-2015)" jointly organised by MIC's social arm, the Yayasan Strategik Sosial (YSS) and IES.

Representatives of some 96 Indian-based civil society organisations attended the one-day meeting. It was also attended by Human Resources Minister and MIC vice-president Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam.

Samy Vellu said the MIC wanted to work together with the organisations and look at their common agenda in reaping the benefits of the 10MP for the Indian community.

He said the comments, suggestions and proposals from the organisations were valuable and would go a long way in strengthening and consolidating the MIC's recommendations, which would be submitted by Dr Subramaniam to the government.

"Our objective for this consultation is to consider and optimise the various aspects of the policy that affects the quality of life of our (Indian) community as a whole, especially the bottom 30 percent of the socio-economic rungs," he said.

He said it was crucial for the MIC to submit its recommendation to the government before the 10MP was to be tabled in Parliament scheduled for next June.