Husni says economic targets in sight if projects kick off
UPDATED @ 01:36:56 PM 11-07-2011
KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — Total private investment in Malaysia should easily exceed 2011 targets if 70 per cent of the planned projects were implemented, Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said today.
The minister also said that the government was confident that the country would be able to secure gross domestic product growth rate of 6 per cent this year.
“To date we have already announced planned investments amounting to RM170 billion for this year,” said Husni at the launch of the Institute of Internal Auditors International Conference here today.
“Assuming a 70 per cent implementation rate, the country’s private investments for the year would reach RM89 billion, comfortably exceeding our 2011 target of RM83 billion.”
The projected private investment level, while higher than the RM72 billion achieved last year, is still below the average of RM120 billion needed annually from now till 2020 under the Najib administration’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).
The ETP is the government’s 10 year programme to lift Malaysia to high-income status by 2020 by targeting an average growth rate of 6 per cent annually and RM120 billion private investment per year.
Malaysia’s growth rate in the first quarter of this year was 4.6 per cent as compared with 10.1 per cent in the same period last year, and some economists estimate growth to moderate further in the second quarter due to continued weakness in global demand.
“We are confident in securing 6 per cent GDP growth for this year and we are similarly confident that we will succeed in our quest for a high-income economy,” said Husni.
On another note, the minister, who was formerly an auditor with Coopers Lybrand (now PwC), told the delegates at the conference that the country’s economic achievements would be a hollow success if the country failed to develop a good corporate environment.
“Good governance is essential to the creation and sustenance of success,” he said. “Sensible and far-sighted fiscal and monetary policies, robust regulatory frameworks and good governance in both public and private sectors, all these guide the invisible hand in the rise and fall of an economy’s fortune.”
Conference organisers said that today’s event was the largest ever focused on internal audit to be held in Asia, with more than 2,000 internal audit and governance practitioners from over 90 countries attending.
It is hosted by the Institute of Internal Auditors Malaysia, which aims to make Malaysia regional hub for the development of the internal audit profession in the Asia-Pacific region.
