PUTRAJAYA, Dec 31 – The government will continue to take all efforts to ensure that Malaysia’s economy gets back on the right track and raise the confidence of investors, both foreign and domestic, in doing business in the country.
In his speech delivered following special prayers at the Putra Mosque here, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim took note of the current political stability following a period of instability.
He said with the strength it has, the unity government’s main focus will be to ensure that confidence from foreign investors will rise with political stability, good governance and a corruption-free administration and consequently strengthen the country’s economy.
He said for January, the government has already registered interest from businesses in countries like the US, Europe US, China, India and Asean to visit Malaysia for trade purpose.
Anwar said this was important for Malaysia as a trading nation, whose economic success has been based on its handling of both domestic and foreign investments well.
He said other than ensuring good governance and political stability, the ease of doing business will be strengthen the processes for businesses, he said.
He said investors must be also convinced that Malaysia is corruption free and had leaders who were looking to doing business with integrity and that ultimately the people will gain from a stronger economy.
The prime minister also pointed out the need to balance development with the well being of the people. He said all developments, whether big or mega, should take into account how it will benefit the people and not sideline them or their well-being instead.
He also reiterated that he will not tolerate corruption at any level. He said one month has passed since he took helm of the new administration and while so many changes had taken place, there was a small faction in the administration who were careless and still in the old mode of taking “gifts”, hiking up cost and so on. He issued a stern warning to them and urged them to give their full cooperation to the government and reminded them that these were the acts that had been destroying the country’s credibility.
The prime minister once again also explained his reasons for cancelling the New Year celebration in Dataran Merdeka planned for 2023, citing the ongoing flood situation in the East Coast states and the difficulties people were facing as well as the Covid-19 threat that has remained in the background. Sabah and Sarawak could be also facing floods in January.
–WE