KUCHING, Oct 5: Spoon feeding the Bumiputera in the logistics industry is no longer relevant and will only result in racial division, says Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing.
He said the issue of the 51 per cent Bumiputera equity in forwarding and logistics companies signifies a regressive step in policies.
While he stressed that he was not denying the rights of Bumiputera to be involved in this industry, he pointed out that there was still a lot that the government could do to help them in terms of capabilities and skills to stand toe-to-toe with globalisation.
“We know that the International Integrated Logistics Services (IILS) has been exempted from the equity ownership condition until Dec 31, 2022. It is unreasonable to burden IILS companies with such a condition hanging over them that could jeopardise their businesses.
“It is far better for the Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju) to design a more comprehensive path towards scaling up the competitiveness of Bumiputera in this sector,” he said in a statement after the 12th Malaysia Plan debate in Parliament today.
Tiong, who is also the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to China, added that many overseas firms have aborted their plans of considering Malaysia as an investment destination due to “unfriendly and backward” policy changes.
He also said many large factories have taken to packing up and migrating and investing in the country’s regional neighbours.
He urged the government to bring back the confidence and inspire investors to come back to the country by planning short-term and long-term effects as well as not build in any racial element for every policy adopted.
“It is crucial for us now to raise the competitiveness of our people and country. Instead of equipping them with the means only to be competitive in this country, we should be building them up for the global stage. The year 2021 is challenging enough, we need to be with the times and the global economic conditions,” he added.
“Teraju needs to be more dominant and effective to provide the necessary input and recommendations to the government, instead of finding ways to snatch other people’s rice bowl and giving it to someone else,” he emphasised. — DayakDaily
