Burgeoning budget, mega-projects not a panacea

Overall on the budget

Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs chief executive

The size of government is going to be as big as ever, if not bigger. There is no sign that the Prime Minister will cut the size of government and allow the private sector to flourish.

 

I like the decision to make it easier to become a permanent resident (PR) of Malaysia. We need to attract talents from around the world, and there is no point preventing people from settling in this country. Immigration is a good thing and it should be made easier.

 

On a different note, I must say that this budget looks very much like a preparation for a general election. There are  promises for more money for JKKK, Kafa teachers and imams, as well as price cap for Plus tolls, and various other “carrots” are being dangled to voters.

 

As ever, the challenge now is in the implementation. Corruption and leakages must be reduced. We have heard so many times our political leaders shouting bombastic ideas to the rakyat, but corruption and leakages are still rampant. This must be fixed immediately.

Mohd Yusof Abdul Rahman, Federation of Malaysia Consumers Associations public relations officer

I welcome the move by the government to help young couples to buy their own homes by coming up with a 50 percent discount on stamp duties for homes below RM350,000.

The proposal to assist young adults who have a household income of under RM3,000, in not having to need to pay the 10 percent downpayment for homes of RM220,000 would result in them being able to own homes at a young age.

As to the government’s directive of not raising toll rates on Plus highways for five years, I truly feel there is a need to restructure the concession agreement. While such a move is welcome, what Fomca wants is a restructuring exercise of the agreement so it would not burden the public.

What will happen after five years is that Plus would raise the toll rates and they would not become affordable.

Construction of RM5 billion new tower near Stadium Merdeka called Warisan Tower

Yeah Kim Leng, Ratings Agency Malaysia chief

The budget is mega-project driven. That is the style of development. The key to success here is the ability of the development to hinge on attracting foreign and domestic investment. All these development projects must be private-sector led.

The ultimate risk must be borne by them. The question is to find investors and to generate commercial activities. The spread of these projects is over the next ten years so they should be coordinated with the efforts to make KL a vibrant city to attract investors to set up here. We should take advantage of our relatively low commercial property prices for this.

At the same time there must not be a glut of these projects competing for the same clients. There must also be flexibility in implementation so we can chop and change as we go, but there is still a need for an in-depth study to understand the viability (of the 100-storey project). In the meantime, we need to sustain the transformation programme and maintain investor confidence. That is the prerequisite for success.

Ramon Navaratnam, Centre of Public Policy Studies chairperson

I am generally positive over its construction on a site near the Merdeka Stadium and Stadium Negara. However, the building must be value-for-money and bring benefit to the rakyat and not be a wasteful project.

The project must be done through open tender and there must be international competition for them to bid for the project. There must be transparency. The facilities put up must benefit the people and not benefit certain parties.

 

Lim Teck Ghee, director, Centre for Policy Initiatives

Clearly a vote-catching budget designed to be relatively painless and benign to the average Malaysian. But is it really so good for the average Malaysian? On the surface, maybe. On closer examination, definitely not.

Concerns should arise on the way that public funds are being splurged on big item projects for which the benefits to the country are minimal though the developers and project partners will reap enormous profits.

The proposed RM5 billion tower is a monstrosity which will serve little purpose and will end up bringing traffic in that already congested part of the city to a standstill. Other big ticket items such as the MRT may be economically more justifiable but they have to be closely monitored in the way in which project contractors and partners are selected.

Already, there is talk of pre-determined winners even before the process of proper technical studies, evaluation and selection has been started. It is disappointing that the budget does not deal at all with the procurement issue which has resulted in wastage, inefficiency and higher costs to the average Malaysian in the last 30 years.

Other areas of concern are the lack of attention given to the provision of basic infrastructure and services including public housing, health and transport affecting the living standards of the bottom half of our people.