Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said today that he has no interest to leave behind any skyscrapers as a legacy.
Instead, he said his priority is to develop strong and sustainable policies and to ensure that the government spends wisely in order to help Malaysians and small businesses thrive in a difficult economic environment.
“I feel there are enough landmarks in Kuala Lumpur like the Twin Towers, KLX and Telekom Tower.
“Under the Anwar administration, I have no wish to add to these landmarks and I am not planning to compete with them.
“My only focus is on ensuring our policies are sound, the people’s needs are taken care of and we must focus on natural disasters, which are a by-product of global climate change.
“By doing these things and more, we can bring back investors’ confidence in Malaysia,” he said during a Budget 2023 dialogue at the Finance Ministry in Putrajaya.
The purpose of the dialogue was to discuss the government’s Budget, which was tabled by the Ismail Sabri administration last October but was not debated due to Parliament’s dissolution to make way for the 15th general election in November.
Anwar, who also serves as finance minister, has said that he intends to implement reforms and eliminate systematic corruption and cronyism in government entities.
He contended that assisting small and medium-sized businesses and traders while making sure they uphold proper business hygiene should receive more attention.
“It’s a real effort to change the orientation and priorities to ensure the vast majority of our citizens benefit from these policies.
“As an example, in the two months since I took office I have easily saved RM4 billion, money spent by other politicians through various procurement deals. These deals are not good for the country and are corrupt.
“I saw a request for an organic farm in Kuala Lumpur, which is a great idea for our economy, but it took two years to approve.
“This nonsense must stop,” he said.
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