Archive for the 'Economy' Category

MCA Has Failed The 86 SPM Top Scorers And Destroyed Their Dreams Again By Breaking Their Own Promise Of Awarding Them PSD Overseas Scholarships Given To Other Top SPM Scorers.

DAP express grave disappointment at the BN Federal government’s decision that the 86 SPM top scorers who failed to qualify for this year’s Public Service Department (PSD) scholarship grants will not be give overseas scholarships but instead be given places in local private colleges and universities. It was only on May 27 that MCA President Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek announced to the press that he had told the prime minister in a meeting that top SPM students should be given scholarships to study abroad despite Putrajaya’s claim that it did not make any such promise.

Continue reading ‘MCA Has Failed The 86 SPM Top Scorers And Destroyed Their Dreams Again (en/bm/cn)’

BN Deluding Themselves And Deceiving The People If They Say There Will Be Only 0.27% Inflation Following Power Tariff Hikes, Ending Free Electricity To 900,000 Consumers Using Less Than RM20 Monthly By End 2011 And Withdrawal Of Diesel Subsidy.

BN deluding themselves and deceiving the people if they say there will only be 0.27% inflation following power tariff hikes, ending free electricity to 900,000 consumers using less than RM 20 monthly by end 2011 and withdrawal of diesel subsidy. How can the government state that inflation will rise by only 0.27 % when everyone feels the price increase in basic household commodities is higher than 0.27%?

The withdrawal of diesel subsidies has led to the announcement by transport operators of the rise in transport costs and prices of fishes soaring because fishermen find it too expensive to put their boats out to sea. For BN to state that inflation will only rise by 0.27% is not reflective of reality and is typical of rich men quoting meaningless statistics to justify wrong policies that hurt the poor and ordinary Malaysians.
Continue reading ‘BN Deluding Themselves And Deceiving The People If They Say There Will Be Only 0.27% (en/bm/cn)’

Desperate Tactics By BN To Racialise PR’s Opposition To Price Increases Will Not Succeed In Deceiving And Distracting The People That Subsidy Cuts Only Affect 27 Million Ordinary Malaysians But Not Impact Big Companies Like IPPs And Felda.

Desperate tactics by BN to racialise PR’s opposition to price increases will not succeed in deceiving and distracting the people that subsidy cuts only affect 27 million ordinary Malaysians but not impact the big companies like Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Felda. BN is so desperate to justify its subsidy cuts that Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Deputy Minister Datuk Tan Lian Hoe is accusing DAP of trying to spark a a racial issue over a cut in the sugar subsidy by involving the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).

This is a stupid argument by Tan as those affected by the price increase of sugar by 20 cents to RM2.30 per kg includes Malays. Or is Tan saying that price increases in sugar and petrol affect only non-Malays?

Continue reading ‘Desperate Tactics By BN To Racialise PR’s Opposition To Price Increases Will Not Succeed In Deceiving And Distracting The People(en/bm/cn)’

Press Statement By DAP Secretary-General And MP For Bagan Lim Guan Eng In Penang On 24 May 2011.

Despite the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), Malaysia has dropped six places from 10th in 2010 to 16th in the Institute of Management Development’s (IMD) 2011 World Competitive Rankings. This downtrend is in tandem with the findings of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index for 2010-2011 as well, which saw Malaysia slipping from 24th (down from 21st the year before) to 26th now.

According to the Switzerland-based Institute of Management Development (IMD), Malaysia had performed badly in two out of the four main factors of the survey – government efficiency and business efficiency, falling from 9th and 4th in 2010 to 17th and 14th respectively in 2011. The other two factors are economic performance and infrastructure.

On the other hand WEF pointed out that Malaysia’s lack of competitiveness stems from poor institutional capacity, with two of the most telling problems listed as ‘irregular payments and bribes’ as well as the lack of ‘judicial independence’. Clearly WEF is addressing the problem of corruption and cronyism just as the IMD report listed business efficacy and government efficiency hampered lack of open tenders and transparency. Continue reading ‘Malaysia has dropped six places from 10th in 2010 to 16th in the IMD’s 2011 World Competitive Rankings(en/bm/cn).’

Penang welcomes the Federal Government’s initiative by Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak to co-develop a Greater Penang Masterplan, which will ultimately result in a major urban conurbation in line with the Penang State Government’s vision of creating an international and intelligent city.

We look forward to a cooperative venture. In response and to prove our sincerity and commitment to the Prime Minister’s offer, the State Government is willing to set aside our completed Penang Blueprint and Industrial Masterplan for 2011-2015, in favour of the Greater Penang Masterplan.
Continue reading ‘Penang welcomes the Federal Government’s initiative by Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak to co-develop a Greater Penang Masterplan’

DAP expresses disappointment at the declaration by EPF of a mere 5.8% dividend or RM 21.61 billion payout for 2010 as inadequate and not commensurate with the 40% increase in EPF gross investment income of RM24.06 billion as compared to 2009′s RM17.22 billion. As compared to 2009’s 5.65% dividend, this increase of only 0.15% to 5.8% dividend does not reflect the economic recovery of Malaysia in 2010 with an expected growth rate of 7.2%

Despite Malaysia suffering a recession in 2009 with negative growth rate of -1.7%, EPF could still pay 5.65%. It does not make sense that with an expected growth rate of 7.2% there is only a marginal increase in dividend rate to 5.8%.
Continue reading ‘The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) 5.8 % Dividend Or RM21.61 Billion Payout For 2010 As Compared To 2009’s 5.65% Is Inadequate And Not Commensurate With The 40% Increase In EPF’s Gross Investment Income.’

The topic of discussion today is ‘The Rise of Asia and China’s Role’. I can conceive of two fruitful approaches in which we can discuss this very general topic in greater depth and detail.

The first approach is to discuss China’s role in ensuring continued economic growth for itself as well as for the region as a whole and perhaps touch briefly on how Asia’s economic strength can be leveraged into other areas of influence in the larger geo-political environment.

The second approach is to broach this topic from the perspective of the role of other countries in Asia vis-à-vis their China and how these countries can be a positive influence in aligning the interest of China with the region so that Asia can continue its rapid climb, economically and politically. One may look at both approaches at two sides of the same coin.
Continue reading ‘China Has Replaced Singapore, USA and Japan As Malaysia’s Largest Trading Partner In 2009.’

DAP is shocked at the revelations by UEM Group MD Datuk Izzaddin Idris that toll highway operator PLUS Expressways Bhd could be compensated as much as RM5 billion by the Federal government over the next five years for not raising toll rates. Clearly freezing toll rates is meaningless as the people still has to pay through compensation payments by the government.

Worse, the government still owes PLUS RM 2.5 billion making the total compensation amount to be paid for the next 5 years a total of RM 7.5 billion! In fact, PLUS would be pleased to be compensated as they would be paid money without having to work for it.

The time has come for the Federal government to consider a one-off nationalization program limited to toll concession agreements in the national interest. Nationalization of toll concession agreements is necessary to prevent irresponsible toll concession companies from reaping extraordinary profits at the expense of the public.

Nationalization is necessary when toll concession operators like PLUS have not only recouped their investment and construction costs but also maintenance costs and are earning pure profits from toll rates revenue collected. Failure to do so will not only create an unbearable financial burden to the people but also strain our country’s finances for the foreseeable future.

The principal negative impact is that compensating PLUS RM 5 billion for the next 5 years for freezing toll rates will only increase both Federal government debt and debt service charges to even more unhealthy levels. According to the Ministry of Finance Economic Report 2010/2011, the total federal government debt would soar by 12.6% from RM 362.4 billion in 2009 to RM 408.2 billion in 2010. This works out to RM 15,118 in debt for each of the 27 million Malaysians as at 2010.

In other words for every Malaysian born, he or she will be immediately in debt of RM 15,118. If we take into account paying an extra RM 1 billion every year to PLUS, it is an expense and a debt burden that the country can ill-afford.(see following table)

Correspondingly, debt service charges have increased from RM 14.2 billion in 2009 to RM 15.9 billion in 2010 and expected to soar to RM 18.6 billion in 2011. Many Malaysians are unhappy why the country has to carry such a huge debt burden borne by 27 million Malaysians for the benefit of one company. Clearly unless drastic action is taken, 27 million Malaysians will lose out to enable a company comprise of BN cronies to gain.
LIM GUAN ENG