Communication and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak today hailed Prime Minister Najib

Abdul Razak for the “work done since 2009" that has enabled Malaysia to withstand “the economic shock that hit us”.

He said the result was that Malaysians continue to enjoy a peaceful life and can continue “to live as we have since before the economic storm”.

Najib assumed the office of prime minister in April 2009.

Writing on his blog, Salleh said that today the global economy had an impact on all countries and Malaysia was no different and that the more a country emerged as a trading nation the more it was exposed to the uncertainties of the global market.

“For 220 months, Malaysia has been enjoying a trade surplus but we still need to have a strategy to ensure that we stay ahead of the curve.

“To do that, we need to strengthen our economic fundamentals. Time and time again we have seen that such a strategy will place a country ahead of the pack,” he said.

“As a result of work done since 2009, and led by the prime minister, the economic shock that hit us was well withstood and we as Malaysians continue to enjoy a peaceful life and can continue to live as we have since before the economic storm,” he said.

Salleh said that, undeniably, the country had had to make adjustments but they were not that drastic.

“... and at the national level we continued to see GDP growth and a rise in the Gross National Income per Capita. This was again verified and ranked by international agencies such as the World Bank and World Economic Forum, just to name a few,” he said.

He said that for the vulnerable group, the government was still able to provide the right safety net programmes such as BR1M and economic programmes such as 1AZAM against a backdrop of a straining budget due to a decline in commodity prices.

“Malaysia is also now within the top 10 countries in the world for Financial Market Development according to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Ranking 2015-2016.

“The ringgit has improved and has not nosedived as many had predicted. The end of the world is not here, as they are suggesting so,” he said.

Salleh said the people needed to take into consideration these positive economic developments and not criticise everything that the government does.

“The opposition paints a gloomy picture of the country and has nothing good to say about the government.

“But not everything that they say about the country or the government is true and is merely meant to serve their political agenda. We must give credit where credit is due,” he said.

- Bernama