MAS restructuring plan well received, work has started: Khazanah Nasional

KUALA LUMPUR: Khazanah Nasional Bhd, which believes the restructuring plan for Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) has been well received, has started revamping the airline and communicating details of its plan with staff representatives.
Its managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar said it has been a month since the recovery plan for MAS was announced on Aug 29, 2014 and work has started on each of the 12 points under the 12-point comprehensive plan.
"We believe the recovery plan as tabled a month ago has been well received overall. There have been many sessions of communicating the details of the plan with staff representatives at the Khazanah level. The management and board of MAS has been going down (to the staff) working with that," he told reporters at the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2014 here yesterday.
Azman added that it is also working on coming up with a MAS Act that will facilitate the restructuring of the national carrier, as well as an aviation commission, where it would act like an economic regulator for the aviation industry.
"We're on track," said Azman, adding that MAS is expected to be delisted by year-end and a new company will be formed by middle of next year.
Earlier, the Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah said Malaysia has developed into a modern and diversified upper middle-income economy, whose expansion was supported by a sophisticated and resilient financial sector.
"However, to build upon this progress, we cannot rely on the same thinking that has brought us here. As the world around us changes, so too we must re-orientate our developmental philosophy to the eventualities which lay ahead," said Nazrin.
The Sultan added that it is important for Malaysia to continue to be a home for all and that access to opportunities must be made more inclusive by transcending socioeconomic barriers, particularly the chasm of poverty. At the same time, growth must also be sustainable across generations and be able to support an optimal quality of life for those living within this economic ecosystem.