Liew Chin Tong shares ideas he developed while serving as deputy investment, trade and industry minister, which he hopes to carry forward as deputy finance minister.
Liew had shared in a Facebook post ideas and actions he developed while serving as deputy investment, trade and industry minister, which he hoped to carry forward in his new portfolio.
He said that Asian economies will have to boost domestic demand by ensuring that citizens in these Asian manufacturing giants feel secure enough to spend and consume.
He tied this to an earlier concern of his: how to make Gen Z across Asia feel secure and affluent enough to spend within their domestic markets, so that Asian economies are not forced to rely on the US as the consumer of last resort.
“We seriously have to look into this to prevent possible Gen Z protests. And, of course, we have to ensure that the rest of the Asian society feel economically secure to consume while they are in their middle ages with a potentially unfunded and precarious old age staring at them.”
Liew also said that Malaysia must not just be seen as a trading country but a technologically-driven one, or at least a middle tech nation.
“(We must) accept that Malaysian companies are not just small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to supply to foreign investors in Malaysia but as potential regional and even global players in their own rights.
“We must do more to grow Malaysian technology multinationals, and never be seen as favouring foreign multinationals over Malaysian giants and potential champions,” he added.
According to Liew, in the past three years, the surge of Chinese car exports has limited other nations in their potential in exporting globally.
“The Chinese supply chains are replacing Japanese and Korean ones in Southeast Asia and there is a shift from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles (EVs),” he said.
Liew said Malaysia needed a whole-of-government rethinking of the automotive industry, pointing out that the country should aspire to be a significant component maker, exporter and innovator, especially for automotive components with semiconductor content.
“Malaysia should also encourage all forms of energy efficient vehicles, not just battery electric vehicles (BEVs), thus giving a breathing space for local supply chains to transition from ICE to EV,” he added.
He said more efforts are needed to encourage the public to buy newer and more energy efficient cars to replace aged vehicles that are petrol guzzlers.
In the 2026 budget, the government introduced an incentive providing up to RM4,000 as matching grants for those who own cars above 20 years old to buy new Proton or Perodua cars. - FMT
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