PN not strong to attract investment - Johari

Former finance minister II Johari Abdul Ghani has pointed out that political stability is crucial to the economic recovery during post-Covid-19.

As such, he expected it would be difficult for the five-month-old Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, which took power with only a razor-thin majority in the Dewan Rakyat, to attract foreign investment.

"In order to develop our economy, the first thing that should be taken into consideration relates to the stability of politics," he said, as quoted by Kosmo!

"With only one or two (seat majority in Parliament), it is hard to attract the investors to come to Malaysia.”

Dewan Rakyat, which convened sitting on July 13, witnessed the political strength of PN when the ruling coalition passed the motion to remove Mohd Ariff Md Yusof as a speaker with 111 MPs in favour and 109 against.

Deputy speaker Mohd Rashid Hasnon (below), who presided over the sitting, did not vote while PN MP Maximus Ongkili was absent on leave.

Previously, the country's strengths depended on the macro and microeconomic fundamentals, besides political stability, without changing its policies, said Johari.

He said foreign investors were hesitant to invest in the country due to the uncertainty in the implementation of country's policies.

Johari named the migration of taxation system from goods and services tax (GST) to sales and service tax (SST) as one of the examples of causing uncertainty to the foreign investors.

"They felt that any policy, which they found difficult to implement before, could be changed swiftly.

"We should send out a clear message to the people and foreign investors that the government could govern the country well and we can manufacture as well as create jobs by helping both sides," he said.

He added that the ability of the government to spend had been greatly reduced due to debt accumulation during the Pakatan Harapan era.

"However, we could not see the effectiveness (of money spent) in economic development.

"The government should focus on the sector that could bring double effect to the country's economy," Johari concluded.  - Mkini