In his keynote address at Invest Malaysia 2018 here today, Najib said his government vowed this would end as it learned lessons from past mistakes in planning Malaysia’s economic transformation, confronting many legacy issues along the way.
Citing public transport as an example, he said the matter was neglected for decades resulting in it being incoherent, with different owners and systems, and certainly no integration.
“One man’s obsession with the idea of a national car, which is now being turned around under international joint ownership, led to Malaysia lacking an efficient public transport system.
“This was a serious obstacle to our ambition to achieve high income status and for Kuala Lumpur to be a world-class capital.
“So, we immediately took steps to rectify that and indicated that public transport would be a top priority for the government,” said Najib, who is also finance minister.
Taking aim at the independent power plant concessions signed by the government in the early 1990s, Najib said they were so lopsided that consumers had to pay far more for energy than they should have, even energy they were not using.
“This was a real burden to the people, so we renegotiated these concessions and determined that in future, we would not allow private companies to earn excessively at the expense of ordinary Malaysians,” he said.
Najib also took a swipe at those who claimed that Malaysia was selling its sovereignty by courting foreign direct investment (FDI) from China.
“I know that the well-informed and well-educated audience here today will recognise what baseless nonsense this is. My government will never sacrifice an inch of our sovereignty,” he said.
Najib underscored this point by stating that FDI did not only come from China.
“Perhaps I can also take the opportunity to remind you that, while over time, we’ve had RM63 billion in FDI stock from China and Hong Kong, we’ve had more, RM70 billion in fact, in FDI from Japan.
“But you don’t hear anyone warning that we’re selling our country to the Japanese.
“Of course not. They are most welcome here. So are investors from Africa, the Americas, China, the European Union, India, Saudi Arabia and other countries,” he said.