Business

Tuesday October 6, 2009

Govt dismisses sale of tolled roads

By YEOW POOI LING


Nor Mohamed: ‘If anyone has a plan to buy, good luck’

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government does not plan to sell any of its tolled roads, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop.

“If anyone has a plan to buy (the tolled roads), good luck but we have no plans to sell,” he told a press conference after launching the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2009 yesterday.

Nor Mohamed was responding to questions regarding a report that said private entity Asas Serba Sdn Bhd was to meet Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on its proposal to consolidate the management and operations of all highway concessionaire companies in the country, including PLUS Expressways Bhd and Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Bhd, in a deal estimated at RM50bil.

It is reported that Asas Serba would be able to reduce toll charges by some 20% after the consolidation while lessening the Government’s subsidies by some RM114bil but to do so, it might need to seek a longer concession period.

From left: Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof, Khazanah Nasional board member and National Economic Advisory Council member Datuk Seri Panglima Andrew Sheng, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop and Khazanah MD Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar at the opening of Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2009 and the launch of Sheng’s book, From Asian to Global Financial Crisis.

The little-known private entity is represented by Datuk Syed Md Amin Aljeffri, chairman of the Kuala Lumpur Malay Chamber of Commerce; Ibrahim Bidin, president and CEO of Pinelabs (M) Sdn Bhd and former PLUS chief operating officer; Wan Kamaruddin Wan Mohamed Ali, former director of Babcock & Brown and Fieldstone International; and Syed Budriz Putra, CEO of Sepang Aircraft Engineering Sdn Bhd.

Earlier, Khazanah Nasional Bhd board member Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof, in his welcome and introduction of the forum, said the current economic crisis was likely to lead to a new framework for competition as countries re-examined existing assumptions on globalisation and took on a stronger focus on upholding values in businesses.

Nor Mohamed, in his speech, also said the global slowdown provided a number of lessons for the country, such as the openness to technology absorption and innovation, the ability to act quickly and seize early mover advantages, develop and strengthen industry clusters like Islamic finance, downstream palm oil and higher value-add electronics, and remain adaptive to the changing global environment and to build up strong symbiotic industrial cluster.

“Malaysia is well-positioned in the centre of Asean and Asia. We can forge partnerships with other countries to jointly access regional markets, particularly in areas like halal products and Islamic finance,” he added.

In addition, the development strategy of major urban centres like the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Baru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu needs to be distinct and with a different industry focus each so as to facilitate the process of becoming a developed nation.


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