The Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM) has rejected an expert's opinion that a market dominated by government-linked companies is bad for the economy.

MTEM chief executive Ahmad Yazid Othman said GLCs play a vital role in shaping a robust economy, besides helping the government implement its agenda.

"GLCs should actually have bigger role in shaping an economy that is competitive for all, and not just certain people," he said at a press conference in Cyberjaya today.

In a policy paper published yesterday, Asian Development Bank economist Jayant Menon (photo) said there was evidence that the sheer size and pervasiveness of GLCs in virtually every sector had stifled private investments.

Moreover, GLCs enjoy preferential treatment and benefits from Putrajaya, leading to an uneven playing field, which then deters private firms.

Ahmad Yazid, however, said that the presence of GLCs served as a balance, so that the free market is not dominated by just several corporate groups.

"So GLCs play a role in connecting the social agenda with the economic agenda, and ensuring that government instruments get to be implemented to spur the economy, in terms of uplifting bumiputeras and others," he said.

Jayant, in his paper, said that instead of engendering a new class of self-reliant and independent bumiputera businesses, the dominance of GLCs have had the opposite effect.

"(There was a) rise in crony capitalism, state-dependence, regulatory capture and grand corruption," he said.

Although admitting that it was difficult to quantify such problems, he noted that evidence can be deduced through indirect indicators, such as The Economist's crony capitalism index for 2016, in which Malaysia ranked second only to Russia.