Speaking at a breaking-fast event with Felda settlers here, Anwar said the government had been injecting nearly RM1 billion annually into Felda, which needed a “major transformation”.
Stressing that Felda’s success was directly tied to Malaysia’s economic prosperity, Anwar said this made it all the more crucial for the statutory body to receive “immediate and strategic” intervention.
“I have given the management one month to present their plans,” he said.
“The time for a leap forward is now, and we must instil confidence in the hundreds of thousands of settlers relying on Felda.”
Anwar also called for efficiency in implementing the agency’s new direction, stating that Felda’s transformation must yield tangible benefits in the shortest time possible.
He said the entire government machinery, including its financial sectors, must work together to ensure a satisfactory new direction for Felda.
Anwar also assured Felda settlers that the government would mobilise all available resources to strengthen the statutory body, its cooperatives, and its subsidiaries – such as FGV Holdings Bhd.
“They have to move in a single direction with a unified goal,” he said.
Anwar stressed that this alignment would be instrumental in elevating Felda’s status and securing a better future for settlers.
According to the auditor-general’s 2022 report which was released in March last year, Felda recorded RM1 billion in losses in 2022, nearly double the RM545 million in losses recorded the year before.
In the report, the auditor-general said Felda also owed RM8.66 billion to external institutions as of 2022, a slight decrease from the RM8.8 billion owed the year before.
It advised Felda to chart a clear direction towards operating without further financial assistance from Putrajaya.
It said Felda had been “highly dependent on financial assistance from the federal government”, receiving RM200 million in grants in 2022 compared to RM342 million in 2021.
Felda was established in 1956 with the objective of poverty eradication through the cultivation of oil palm and rubber. - FMT
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