Liberal approach to transform industrial sector 'regressive' - MP

A PKR lawmaker has expressed concerns over the New Industrial Master Plan (NIMP) 2023 launched today, which will adopt a more liberal approach towards investment strategies.

“I do not consider a liberal approach (to investment) as progressive but rather as regressive,” Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim said in a statement today.

He said he doubted that the liberal investment policies would be able to restore the dominance of foreign capital over local national capital equity as it was before the New Economic Policy in 1971.

Hassan (above) cited the entry of Tesla into Malaysia, which was not in line with the conditions of equity dominance and cooperation with a local partner, as a serious example of violation with the sole aim of obtaining foreign direct investment.

Such practices, if left uncontrolled, will only harm the country’s economy in the future, he said.

“I urge Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to review what they call the liberal approach of the NIMP 2030 before the damage and imbalance occurs in the country’s industrial sector whereby Malaysia will once again become a country under the neo-colonialism of foreign capitalists,” he said.

Anwar today launched the NIMP 2023, which he said is expected to require an estimated total investment of RM95 billion.

The RM95 billion investment will come predominantly from the private sector while the government will provide about 10 percent of the funds, he said.

The NIMP is meant to transform the country’s industrial sector by 2030.

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