Bumiputera agencies must return to core focus, says Anwar

 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Bumiputera agencies seemed to have lost sight of why they were established in the first place. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Bumiputera agencies must get back to their core function, which is taking care of the community, says Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

“I am quite firm in providing space for everyone but the agencies entrusted to protect the interests of the Bumiputeras – and which are given land, shares and facilities – are not managed well.

“Even if an agency is managed well, the management doesn’t understand the purpose of its establishment,” he said when announcing the allocation of additional units for the Amanah Hartanah Bumiputera today.

He said the agencies did not understand that their purpose was to take care of the Bumiputeras.

“Hence, they do business purely for commercial interests, period.”

In September, Anwar said efforts to empower Bumiputeras would shift from focusing on selected companies to programmes involving more entrepreneurs, and small and medium-scale Bumiputera companies.

Anwar said Bumiputera companies would continue to receive funding from the allocations given by the government to 16 Bumiputera agencies, including Mara, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, Tekun Nasional, Ekuinas, Teraju and Permodalan Nasional Bhd.

At the event, Anwar announced an additional 1 billion units of the Bumiputera property trust scheme (AHB), bringing the accumulated total to 5 billion units.

This is the fifth increase since the AHB scheme was unveiled in 2010 to raise Bumiputera equity in commercial real estate. - FMT