“People criticise me whenever I say the economy is growing by 5.8%. The central bank reserves are strengthening to over US$100 billion, but people say they don’t feel (the growth).
“But whatever the economic growth, we translate (to subsidies),” he said in a speech at the soft launch of the Global Entrepreneurship Community Summit 2017 at the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) here.
According to Irwan, the economy’s growth of 5.8% allowed the government to continue subsidising services such as medical, education and public transport facilities.
He pointed out that Malaysians only pay RM1 when registering at government hospitals.
“Where in the world do you pay RM1? If you go to the US, they will ask for an insurance card,” he said.
As for education, he said, the government provides subsidies for students from Standard One to Standard Six.
“Even in universities, students can take a loan from the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN).”
Likewise, the government gave subsidies for the MRT and LRT lines which it had first built.
“Where is the money coming from? It is from the revenue and economic growth,” he said.
Irwan added that the focus was now on designing the future.
“We want to make Cyberjaya the smartest city. A green city where everything is computerised. A cashless city where people pay through their phones at restaurants,” he said.
On Aug 17, Reuters reported that in the second quarter, Malaysia’s economy had expanded at the fastest pace in over two years on the back of domestic demand and robust exports, defying expectations for a slight slowdown.
Data showed that Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy grew 5.8% in April-June from a year earlier, well above a Reuters poll forecast of 5.4%.
Growth accelerated from 5.6% in the first three months of the year, which had also been better than expected.
Following the data, Bank Negara Malaysia raised its 2017 growth forecast to above 4.8%. The last forecast in March predicted growth of 4.3% to 4.8%.