For the first time ever in history, Malaysia attracted less investment than the Philippines



What New Economic Model?

While the proposed New Economic Model (NEM) by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak has correctly identified some of the fundamental problems with our economy which has led to our fall from grace, as well as proposing some key measures to restructure our economy, he has repeatedly backtracked from the NEM and shown little political appetite to implement the critical policies which will lead to improvements and greater competitiveness in our economy.

Datuk Seri Najib has since described and relegated the NEM to merely a trial balloon and backtracked from his commitment that affirmative action will be implemented by needs and not by race by reinstating the 30% bumiputera quota target in the 10th Malaysia Plan. The recent spate of privatisation projects have also not seen any political will on the part of the Government to implement open, transparent and competitive tenders, including the RM628 million construction of Malaysia's largest exhibition and convention centre, the development of the 3,000 acres of prime land in Sungai Buloh as well as the proposed major redevelopment of the old Sungai Besi airport into the KL Financial Centre.

Even the highly anticipated RM46 billion Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project for the Klang Valley looks all but awarded to a Gamuda-MMC consortium without any open competitive tenders.

What is worse, despite Datuk Seri Najib's repeatedly insisted that the era where the government knows best is over, his administration continues to crowd out private investments by direct awarding mega-projects to government-linked entities such as the Sg Buloh land to an Employee Provident Fund joint venture with the Government or the Sg Besi airport redevelopment to the 1Malaysia Development Fund.

Without these necessary and critical changes to the Government's economic policies, the Malaysian economy will! only co ntinue to drift away from the radar of both local and foreign investors as our Ministers continue to indulge in their daydream of glory and success, while our neighbours will steadily and consistently improve their economies beyond our reach.

(Source data available upon request from Tony Pua - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 0162220086)

See What Barisan Nasional Gotta Say?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

All Anwar Ibrahim Sex Videos (Warning: Explicit)

YB SEX SCANDAL - PART 4 (from Sabahkini)- in Malay

YB SEX SCANDAL - PART 3 (from Sabahkini)- in Malay