‘WE HAVE A LOT OF UNFINISHED BUSINESS’
The following are excerpts from the keynote address by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at Invest Malaysia 2019 at Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, on March 19
IN less than two months, Malaysia will celebrate its first anniversary of the landmark 14th General Election. It was a very important election as it was an opportunity to bring an end to a corrupt government. Now we are no longer known as a nation of kleptocracy. I cannot imagine the disaster the nation would have been in if the majority of Malaysians did not rise to the occasion. We averted the financial disaster waiting to happen if the Ponzi scheme to cover the 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd) hole was not discovered and reversed.
We have spent a good part of our first anniversary to plug the almost bottomless pit created by 1MDB. Even though the task has yet to be concluded and in fact, it will take several years to solve it, we have to move on to start developing the nation.
We have a lot of unfinished business. We have a nation to rebuild and to achieve that, we have to reset Malaysia.
Our goal is clear — to be a developed nation in every sense of the word. It is a development that must benefit everyone, where prosperity is shared and growth is sustainable. We are committed to economic growth with social justice.
We can’t develop if we don’t grow our economy. We are committed to ensuring our policies are investor-friendly; to both foreign and domestic investors. Economic policy priorities of the Pakatan Harapan government had been deliberated in the mid-term review of the 11th Malaysia Plan through its six policy pillars.
Among them, the pillar on public governance reform is given the utmost priority — aimed at restoring credibility and trustworthiness in public institutions.
To ensure the economy remains resilient, the government is implementing the following macro strategies:
Driving productivity at all levels to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth;
Promoting quality investment to spearhead economic growth;