Absence of clear, practical policies casts doubts among business community

PETALING JAYA: An academic today blamed the lack of confidence among the business community to venture into new fields or products on the absence of a “clear and practical economic policy” by Putrajaya.

Abu Sofian Yaacob, an associate professor at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, said entrepreneurs had reservations about going into new fields or coming up with new products as they were afraid they would not take off.

He told FMT the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government must come up with a better plan to inject confidence in the market.

Sofian also said the people were depending on PH to improve their standard of living after winning the May 9 polls but that had not happened.

“This has led to some comparing the current administration to the previous Barisan Nasional government.

“The problem is compounded by the fact that the value of the ringgit has dropped, the prices of goods have increased, and people are bringing home less money,” he said.

Ahmed Razman Abdul Latiff, an associate professor with the Putra Business School, said Putrajaya’s decision to cut down on spending, including postponing or cancelling several mega projects, had also painted a gloomy picture for various industries, especially construction.

He said this had impacted on the related small medium enterprises.

“A volatile market coupled with unstable commodity prices has also made the local industry more sceptical about attracting investors and venturing into new business opportunities.

“The tariff war between the United States and China has had an impact on local industries, especially when it comes to the import and export of goods between Malaysia and the two countries,” he told FMT.

Razman said Putrajaya must help the business community by setting up funding facilities, improving human capital development and producing highly skilled workers.

He said bilateral trade agreements signed with other countries must ensure that Malaysians were given a chance to expand their businesses.

According to a study by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), Malaysia’s Business Optimism Index (BOI) was down to 8.92 percentage points for the first quarter of 2019 from the 12.99 percentage points in the fourth quarter of last year.

It said the transport, services and wholesale sectors had emerged as the most upbeat sectors while construction and mining were the least optimistic. -FMT