47 minutes
KUALA LUMPUR: The unity government led by Malaysia’s 10th Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, must address economic challenges in the country, especially the expected global slowdown next year.
President and chief executive officer of EMIR Research Datuk Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff has called on the country’s politicians to accept Anwar’s appointment as the prime minister and start to focus on the people’s problems.
“We need to accept the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decision, begin service and prioritise the people’s needs, such as putting food on the table,” he told a special live Bernama TV programme yesterday.
He highlighted major issues in the country such as the cost of living, the country’s education system, and the employment situation.
“The cost of living issue needs to be resolved quickly, inflation is rising but income is not, the ringgit’s fall has caused the cost of imported goods to rise and this affects disposable income,“ he added.
Rais also called for structural reforms so that investor confidence is revived. “We can see that foreign direct investment has been declining,” he noted.
Touching on the rally in the stock market and ringgit yesterday, he said it was a good start but Malaysia needs consistent investment policies to attract investors.
“If not they won’t come to invest,” he said, citing the sabotage policy as an example where Malaysia lost billions of ringgit due to a change in policy that resulted from a change in government.
“We need comprehensive planning so that the policies do not change in the event of a change in government, as happened with regard to the cabotage policy previously,” he added. - Bernama
