Judge govt fairly after first term — FSI Life President
KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Panglima Wong Khen Thau, Life President of the Federation of Sabah Industries (FSI), Chairman of the Malaysia International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI), Sabah Branch and President of the Persatuan IPTS Sabah, urged critics to judge the performance of the government fairly, not hastily after just one year.
“We would like to congratulate the Federal and State Governments, although they have much more to achieve and to fulfil all the promises in their manifesto.”
Congratulating the government on its first anniversary on behalf of the organisations he heads, Wong called for priority to strengthen economy of country with new policy, new strategy, particularly focussing on investment in infrastructure to stimulate economy.
He is happy to note that Bank Negara has reduced the BLR which would reduce business costs, an issue that he champions in FSI and MICCI Sabah.
“This is a positive step from the government side to help the business community and investors. Banks must be prepared to start lending and stimulate economic activities with more loans. The private sector must be encouraged to invest or take up government projects.”
The vibrancy of the economy depends on the government, Bank Negara and the private sector to invest and take up opportunities or projects or DDI or Domestic Direct Investments, besides FDI or Foreign Direct Investments to strengthen the economy of Malaysia, Wong said, rather than being struck with austerity measures of cutting down development spending.
“After one year, it seems that more domestic and foreign investments are coming in. We are happy to note that the government is placing more emphasis on the welfare of the rakyat and to strengthen the economy of the country to catch up with the other tiger economies.”
He appealed to critics from the business community: “Give the Federal government one term to perform, and only then, judge them fairly on their performance. I believe they are trying their very best to correct the wrongs and set a clean record compared to the corruption in the past. We need to give them more time to improve the financial standing of the country.
“This government has only been in power for a year. It’s not easy to implement much needed structural reforms to the democratic system with more freedom compared to the 61 years under the previous government. I believe the new beginning of a New Malaysia is on the right direction to clean up past wrongs and improve our economy. We feel that this is something positively good,” Wong said although some ministers were inexperienced and are still on a learning process.
He said the Prime Minister was right not to reshuffle his cabinet, and is leading his ministers on the right direction with a renewed focus on inclusiveness and sustainability, and that the divisive political culture and instability of West Malaysia should not be spread to East Malaysia affecting the harmonious social relationships.
“We hope the Federal Government will look seriously into Sabah and Sarawak’s development to catch up with Peninsular Malaysia. We feel that the next economic and political game changer is rested on East Malaysia which has lots of resources.
“The government must seriously look into the proper development needs of Sabah and Sarawak. Economically, a lot of resources are found in East Malaysia.”
He noted that politically, due to the alignment split in political parties in West Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak will be the main decision makers in the formation of the Federal government in future in line with the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
Wong opined that the government leaders should listen to industry leaders and the people on how to go forward in the right direction and to forge a conducive environment for the business community, that the government be a good supporter of the private sector rather than be involved in business competition with the private sector.
There is a positive correlation between competitiveness index and the index of higher education and training. The potential for Sabah and Malaysia achieving high and sustained growth depends critically on investment and education.
Competitiveness can be enhanced by improving the level of efficiency of our government and educational institutions and the productive capacity of our educated and trained human resource, Wong stressed, on the duty of the government to fund human resource development for industries.