The stability will help to attract greater FDI

by ANIS HAZIM / pic TMR FILE

POLITICAL stability is very important for any country because it will help to attract greater foreign direct investment (FDI), Titiwangsa MP Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani (picture) said.

In this context, he mentioned that the vote of confidence for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is crucial from an economic perspective because it is a prelude to a stable government country.

The former deputy finance minister also expressed his concern about the country’s increasing amount of national debt, which has increased by almost RM400 billion in the period of 2018 to 2021 to reach RM1.2 trillion.

“In 2017, we paid only RM27.9 billion in interest but in 2022, interest payments will reach RM43 billion. What worries me is that it will affect the country in the next five to ten years,” he noted.

He said Malaysia needs to critically manage the national debt or the country’s fate will befall similar fate like Sri Lanka.

Additionally, he said the country also showed a shrinking economic growth from 2018 to 2021.

“In developing economic growth, we cannot ignore the elements of investment growth and expanding consumption but when looking between these two elements, the number of new graduates and new jobs is shrinking,” he said.

According to him, the number of graduates produced by the country compared to the number of new jobs offered by the private sector in the four years clearly did not show sustainable economic growth.

He said in 2018, the number of graduates produced was 299,000 compared with 101,000 new jobs; in 2019 there were 386,000 new graduates and 103,000 new jobs; 2020 with 294,000 new graduates and 73,000 new jobs; and 2021 as many as 286,000 new graduates with only 69,500 new jobs offered.

He said if the Malaysia’s economic growth continue to fall, Malaysia would risk falling further behind Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.