Najib’s Experience Will be an Advantage

I welcome YAB Dato Sri Najib Tun Razak’s move to the Finance Ministry. I am confident with his vast experience and background, he would be able to steer the country out of the current economic situation. I appeal to Dato Sri Najib to take all the necessary steps to liberalize the economy. For example, relooking at FIC requirements to encourage more foreign direct investments as he stated in his Ministerial statement during the tabling of the Mid Term Review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan. I also hope Dato Sri Najib will further relax equity conditions – like requiring 30% Bumiputera equity before listing on Bursa Malaysia ‑ to bring Malaysia forward to the global era. I also hope that Dato Sri Najib will initiate steps to ensure speedier approvals for investment proposals. Vietnam, for example, takes just a week to approval investment proposals and we have to improve ourselves in this area or lose out to other regional countries.

I also call on Dato Sri Najib to remove subsidies and ceiling prices which are hindrances to economic growth. Subsidies and ceiling prices give a false picture of the current situation ie. they suppress the actual inflation rate and result in wages being kept low, thus encouraging a migration of workers to other countries. Removing these hurdles will put the country in tune with real economic conditions and in line with global development.

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纳吉的经验将是一个优势

我欢迎副首相纳吉接替财政部的职务。我深信，以他的广泛经验和背景，他将能够领导我国摆脱目前的经济情况。我敦促纳吉采取一切必要的措施，使我国的经济自由化。例如，重新检讨外来投资的条例，以鼓励更多的外来直接投资，就好像他在提呈第九个马来西亚计划中期检讨发表的部门声明中所说的一样。.我也希望，纳吉将进一步放宽股权的条件，例如公司在马来西亚股票交易所挂牌之前必须拥有 30% 土著股权的条例。这样才能使我国迈向全球化的时代。此外，纳吉也应该采取步骤，确保投资建议能够更迅速获得通过。以越南作为例子，这个国家只用一个星期的时间就批准了投资建议。因此，我们必须在这方面作出改善，否则外资将流到本区域其他的国家。

我也敦促纳吉撤销一些补贴和实行顶价的措施，因为它们会妨碍我国的经济成长。补贴和顶价措施令人对目前的情况产生错误的看法，也就是，这些措施抑制实质的通货膨胀率，同时导致工资被压低。这样会造成工人转移到其他国家打工。只有撤销这些障碍，才能反映出国家的实质经济情况，同时符合全球的发展。