GOVT TO FINALISE OPTIONS BY YEAR-END
It’s not practical to continue depending on government for expenditures, says minister
THE government will finalise feasible financing options by year-end to upgrade primary and secondary airports infrastructure throughout the country, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook.
He said the government is in the midst of studying various options to undertake the airports expansion plan.
“We are in a tight financial situation and our yearly development budget is very limited. Every airport needs expansion. It will definitely cost the government a lot of money to upgrade or development airports,” he said after the groundbreaking ceremony of dedicated processing centre (security, immigration and customs) for departing crew at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2, here, yesterday.
Loke said it was not practical to continue to depend on the government for development expenditures as the administration was currently grappled with more than RM1 trillion debts and liabilities.
“However, infrastructure projects must go on. We will look into ways to work on this plan. We will answer it when the government decides its ways forward.”
Loke said the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) had a balanced mix of local and foreign carriers, offering both full-service and low-cost flights, thus putting it in a viable position to become a strong hub.
“KLIA is primed to take advantage of this growth, backed by its strong airline connectivity and extensive route offerings to more than 130 direct destinations, coupled with its geographical advantage in the Asia-Pacific region.”
He added that air transport was a driver of global trade and ecommerce, helping to generate economic growth not only with direct benefits, but also in indirect benefits.
He said this included the aviation sector’s procurement of goods and services from other businesses, induced benefits such as wage payments to staff as well as tourism benefits.
“For Malaysia, the impact of the aviation sector is estimated at US$1.97 billion (RM8.14 billion) in direct benefits, US$2.59 billion in indirect benefits, US$369 million in induced benefits and US$6.30 billion in tourism benefits,” he said, adding that the aviation sector in Malaysia generated about 3.3 per cent of Malaysia’s gross domestic product, creating over 460,000 jobs.
The Airports Council International (ACI) World has called on governments and regulators to facilitate appropriate private investment in airports.
ACI said private investment in airports had proven to help deliver strong traffic growth, significant increase in capital expenditure and improvement in service quality in global airports.