What Is The Real Reason Behind Privatisation Of IJN?

1. What is not working well with the IJN that it needs to be privatised? Nothing! "Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said IJN’s present method of operations would continue." The rakyat should ask the question, If nothing is wrong with the IJN, what is the real reason behind the privatisation?
Is it raise the fees and in effectively suck more money from the poor malaysians who have heart problem?

2. The government says it will regulate fees at IJN. It didn't say it will make sure the fees stay the same or lower it. So be prepared to pay more fees. Even during economic downtimes, the government is trying ways to suck every penny out of the rakyat, instead of helping the rakyat. Stop the antics that the government is helping the rakyat by lowering the price of petrol. At the current price of RM1.80 per litre, the government is profiteering billions of dollars out of the rakyat. Talk about government cheating it's own people. Stop the antics that Petronas is getting less profit also due to the falling petrol price. That is none of the rakyat business because we are not managing Petronas.

3. The government says that it will regulate fees at IJN even if the heart hospital is privatised. Make sure you keep to your word! Else the rakyat will make you eat your word at the next election.

Government to regulate fees at IJN even if heart hospital is privatised

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Heart Institute’s (IJN) fees will continue to be regulated by the Govern­ment even if it is privatised.

Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said IJN’s present method of operations would also have to continue.

“I would like to reiterate that the fee structure is currently set by the Government.

“It will be the same, even in the future, so IJN cannot charge higher than what is allowed by the Govern­ment,” he said when asked of reports of Sime Darby Bhd making a bid for a stake in IJN.

He was speaking to reporters after visiting patients Chen Winnie, 23, and Tan Geek Koon, 40, who are both awaiting donor hearts.

Liow said his ministry would look into the social aspect of the privatisation plans to make sure that the patients’ interests are taken care of.

“There are a lot of Government requirements that they (Sime Darby) will have to fulfil,” he said.

He said that currently about 80% of IJN patients were subsidised by the Government.

Asked if that would continue even with the privatisation, he said: “Yes, that will continue, definitely. That is the prerequisite. It won’t change anything.”

He said the objective for the setting up IJN was very clear, which was to serve Malaysians from all walks of life and IJN would have to continue fulfilling that purpose.

MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, however, hoped IJN would not be privatised.

The former Health Minister told a press conference at Wisma MCA here that, apart from promoting Malay­sia’s good name in the eyes of the world, the institute had done a lot in helping the poor in the country.

MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the party hoped that the Government would not privatise IJN.

He said the privatisation would cause hardship to the poor although Sime Darby has assured that it would not burden the poor.

GDP may grow below 3% next year

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) may be revising its forecast of 3.4% gross domestic product (GDP) growth for next year to less than 3%. (On Nov 5, 2008 - GDP for next year is estimated to be 3.5%)

According to executive director Datuk Dr Mohamed Ariff Abdul Kareem, Malaysia will not be insulated from the dismal global outlook and some of the assumptions behind its earlier projection were now being challenged, especially with regards to the worse-than-expected growth rates of the US, Europe and Japan.

“The picture looks more severe than it appeared at first,” he told reporters after the MIER National Economic Outlook conference 2009-2010 yesterday.

He said chances were the forecast would be downgraded but it would depend on the information from upcoming MIER surveys.

“We need to take another look at the numbers and we need a basis to do that. We think the fourth quarter survey we are conducting this month will provide us this basis,” he said.

By the looks of it, next year’s GDP growth may be revised a little downwards but Malaysia would still be able to weather the storm because there were a lot of mitigating factors, he added.

Asked whether the overnight policy rate (OPR) should be further revised, he said: “I think the 25 basis point reduction is not sufficient. But to reduce it by 50 basis points at one go may have adverse implications for the ringgit. In that sense, Bank Negara was wise enough to do it in a gradual way.”

He said the OPR could be revised to a little lower to 3% because the situation now was far more serious than in 2005 when interest rate was only 3%.

“With inflation coming down considerably, we think there is some space for lower interest rates,” he said, adding that he expected OPR to be slashed by another 25 basis points at the next monetary policy committee meeting.

While he expected the banking sector margins to be affected, he said banks were still well capitalised to ride this out.

‘Their profit performance has been fairly good. Banks in Malaysia are in a far better position compared with banks in the region,” he said.

He said the RM7bil stimulus package unveiled last month as a measure to stimulate domestic demand was not quite sufficient.

“The RM7bil stimulus package is nothing. It is very small. The situation is far more tense and we are worried about job losses. The Government should do everything it can to address job losses as it has a cumulative effect on the economy,” he said.

He expected the manufacturing sector, especially those involved in assembly activities, to be affected by job losses.

The construction sector was also expected to taper off, he said.

“I think we will feel the heat of this crisis by the middle of next year. I don’t see any traction until mid-2010 or 2011. All indications are that the US is not going to recover in two years,” he said.

For MIER reports click here

Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/3/business/2705054&sec=business

Najib: Projects to stimulate economy must take off soon

Related: RM7bil Spending

Nov 11, 2008, KUALA LUMPUR: Programmes under Budget 2009 and the RM7bil stimulus package must preferably take off by the first quarter of next year.

Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said it was important for the programmes, which were introduced to reinforce the economy, to be implemented soon.

“Right now, that’s our priority,” he told reporters yesterday after attending the Economic Council meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, at Parliament House.

Najib said the Government would introduce several measures to insulate the country’s economy from the global financial crisis.

Among them were making structural changes to encourage better and competitive economic growth, encouraging more investments from the private sector in the local economy and implementing progressive liberalisation of the services sector.

To a question, Najib said the Government would only come up with additional stimulus packages if the situation warranted them.

“We have the capacity to make capital injections, but at the same time we cannot allow the Government’s fiscal deficit to become too high,” he added.

Najib said more effort would also be made to encourage additional foreign direct investments in certain economic sectors and sub-sectors.

He said the meeting also decided that more skilled or knowledge workers were needed, especially for the main growth corridors.

Earlier when addressing the inaugural Asean Infrastructure Financing Mechanism Conference, Najib said Asean was inviting the private sector and multilateral organisations to assist in implementing and developing infrastructure projects, which were essential in accelerating the region’s economic growth.

He said the Asean Finance Ministers were inviting the private sector to engage with the Asean Infrastructure Financing Mechanism (AIFM) Task Force set up to facilitate the establishment of the best frameworks and mechanisms to attract greater private sector participation and investment.

Malaysia chairs the task force.

Abdullah, in his welcoming speech to the Economic Council, said Malaysia was not completely insulated although it had strong macro-economic fundamentals and a resilient banking and financial system.

He said that while the stimulus package announced by Najib last week was a short-term policy response, the Government believed it should also take the opportunity to address medium and long-term structural issues and formulate a strategic package to ensure rapid growth of the economy.

RM7bil package may not be enough: Ariff

Nov 6, 2008, PETALING JAYA: The RM7bil stimulus package will help cushion the adverse impact of a global economic crisis but is unlikely to avert a possible recession, says Malaysian Institute of Economic Research executive director Professor Datuk Dr Mohamed Ariff Abdul Kareem.

In an e-mail to StarBiz yesterday, Ariff said the crisis was simply too big to be contained by a package of this size and there was a strong possibility that Malaysia might face two consecutive quarters of quarter-on-quarter contractions in the gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

“The strategy, which is mainly of increased spending, may not be sufficient to ward off the impending crisis. For one, there are limits to public expenditure, given the serious budgetary constraints.

“For another, there are no incentives in the package for increased private sector investment expenditures,” he said,

He added that the package would work better if it were accompanied by policy liberalisation.

Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said on Tuesday the GDP growth forecast for the year had been pared down from 5.7% to 5%, while for 2009, was revised to 3.5% from 5.4%.

Meanwhile, the budget deficit for next year has been raised to 4.8% from 3.6% due to lower government revenue from commodities.

Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd chief economist Nor Zahidi Alias said the overall strategy to have an expansionary fiscal policy was a step in the right direction by the government.

“Economists have learnt over the years that a contractionary budget will only lead to disastrous outcomes when implemented during an economic slowdown,” he said.

Macro indicators seemed to suggest that the US economy would be experiencing a full-blown recession and an open economy like Malaysia is expected to be adversely affected through various linkages, particularly external trade and investment, Zahidi said.

“As such, efforts should be made to support domestic economy, particularly through consumption and high-multiplier projects. The reduction in employees’ contribution to the EPF would aid private consumption, the major pillar of the Malaysian economy,” he added.

In contrast, Ariff said it was not wise to use the EPF as an instrument for short-term macro-economic stabilisation.

“EPF savings are meant for the future, not for current consumption, and studies have shown that in most cases, EPF savings are inadequate to take care of the retirees’ financial needs,” he said.

However, Zahidi said that due to such concerns, the government had made the reduction in EPF contributions optional and would only be implemented for two years.

Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/11/6/business/2470214&sec=business

RM7 Billion Stimulus Package Breakdown

In response to the global financial crisis, the Government announced a RM7 billion stimulus package to boost the country's economy.

Deputy Prime Minister cum Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, announced the package which he termed as expansionary policy.

The breakdown of the stimulus package, as following

• RM1.2 billion allocations for the construction of 15,000 low-cost and medium-cost houses.
• RM500 million to refurbish police stations and police quarters, as well as army camps and their living quarters.
• RM600 million for small projects under the Public Infrastructure Maintenance (PIAS) for repairing village roads, building of community halls and small bridges.
• RM500 million for the preservation and repair of public amenities such as schools, hospitals and roads.
• RM500 million for upgrading and construction of rural roads and village roads.
• RM200 million to four groups of schools. RM50 million each for fully-aided religious schools, mission schools, Chinese schools and Tamil schools.
• RM300 million for creation of funds and to implement skills training programmes in the Development Corridors.
• RM500 million to strengthen the public transport especially the LRT, Komuter and bus systems in urban areas.
• RM1.5 billion ringgit as investment funds to attract more private sector investors.
• RM400 million to expedite the high-speed broadband project implementation.
• RM200 million to build human capital through various training programmes by various ministries.
• RM100 million for Rakan Muda projects.
• RM200 million to revitalise abandoned housing projects.
• RM200 million for early education for kids.
  

Read the full speech here.

RM7bil spending

Nov 5, 2008, KUALA LUMPUR: A total of RM7bil will be spent by the Government in its stimulus package to boost the country’s economy in the face of the global financial crisis.

Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in announcing the package which he termed as a policy response to the crisis, said the Government was adopting an expansionary policy.

The money is to be spent on a wide range of projects, from the LRT to repairing of houses belonging to the poor.

Among the major announcements in Najib’s winding-up reply in Parliament yesterday were:

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year expected to be at least 5% while the GDP for next year is estimated to be 3.5%. Update: GDP may grow below 3% next year (http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/3/business/2705054&sec=business)
  
• The inflation rate expected to drop next year to between 3% and 4%, provided crude oil prices continued to fall.
• Contributors allowed to reduce their EPF contribution by three percentage points to 8%, so that they will have more money to spend.
• Civil servant car loans increased by RM10,000.
• Religious, missionary, Chinese and Tamil schools to get RM200mil as aid.
• Open tender system will be practised in the sale of government land and in government procurement.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/11/5/nation/2459309&sec=nation

Nov 6, 2008 - RM7bil package may not be enough: Ariff
Nov 5, 2008 - RM7 Billion Stimulus Package Breakdown