The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project promised to be a shining beacon of progress, slashing travel time between the two nations and spurring economic growth. Yet, instead of gleaming tracks and swift carriages, what we have is a tangled mess of flip-flops, soaring costs, and a trail of wasted taxpayer money on the sheer extravagance of irresponsible policymaking and its heavy toll on the nation’s pocket.
Malaysia is a country blessed with relatively robust water reserves via a wide access to ample rainfall averaging 3,000mm annually and rich surface water resources such as rivers which provides approximately 97% of raw water used in agricultural, domestic and industrial sectors.1 Given this rich supply of liquid gold, one would expect that the mass population would receive uninterrupted access to clean water. However, the country has faced a myriad of water problems over the years which includes the ageing piping system, increasingly worrying pollution affecting our water sources and the rising non-revenue water (NRW) figures at national level.
The Pangkalan Data Utama (PADU), recently introduced by the Madani government aims to be a social safety net built on a vast database of personal information where Malaysian citizens above 18 years old regardless of their background would have to contributed to this massive collection of personal data to date. While the promise of targeted support is appealing, the Minister of Economy has yet to address several flaws prior to the grand launch on 2nd of January 2024.
Youths are supposed to be future tech-savvy leaders, bringing nations forward. Yet in Malaysia, we have nearly half a million young people who are jobless or at least that is what the number tells us. This is the harsh reality we face. From an economic perspective, the national unemployment rates may seem deceptively low at 3.4% but digging beneath the surface would unearth a brewing crisis.
As of October 2023, over 310,000 young Malaysians, aged 15-24 are unemployed with that number soaring to nearly 440,000 when we consider a wider youth scope, aged 15- 30.1 While some see them as mere numbers, we see faces. Over 187,000 graduates with hard-earned certifications could not find a job in 2022, pointing to a deeper problem in the system, suggesting a structural mismatch. This issue is only expected to get worse with number of graduates steadily increasing over the years where 5.92 million graduated last year.2 Is the government implementing enough initiatives beyond job fairs to effectively address this issue?
In November 2023, Malaysia’s trade was reported to have slowed at a moderate rate of 2.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM231.79 billion. Total exports were recorded at RM122.10 billion, a contraction of 5.9% y-o-y while imports grew by 1.7% to RM109.69 billion for the same period. Trade surplus was valued at RM12.41 billion, making it the 43rd consecutive month of surplus since May 2020. Malaysia’s performance was in tandem with its key trading partners notably Taiwan, ROC and Indonesia which posted negative trade growth in November 2023 and a drop in global imports.
INSAP believes that this new tax called the Low Value Goods tax is punitive to the lower income groups as it applies only to imported to goods below RM500. This is presumably also an attempt to plug the tax leakage that is prevalent in the Online Market Place (OMP). On top of it, the process of collection is unclear hence, the roll- out plan and collection are not transparent thus, may be subjected to abuse.
A new Loss and Damage Fund has been established to aid developing countries facing the brunt of climate change impacts.
Initial funding is $400 million, with pledges from Germany, UAE, UK, Japan, and EU.
Developing countries, like Malaysia, contribute little to climate change but suffer disproportionately from its consequences.
Malaysia’s wage landscape, influenced by factors like recent currency devaluation, escalating youth unemployment, and heavy reliance on foreign labour, primarily relies on the Minimum Wage Model. Despite the recent increase to RM1,500 per month with annual rises of 5.24% for Peninsular Malaysia and 6.49% for Sabah and Sarawak since 2013 recorded, overall labour productivity only managed a 2.3% annual increase from 2013 to 2022. This disparity between consistent minimum wage growth and slower productivity escalation poses indirect risks of potential job losses or underemployment in the long run. Could the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) provide a solution or bring about a positive impact to our wage landscape?
Malaysia’s wage landscape, influenced by factors like recent currency devaluation, escalating youth unemployment, and heavy reliance on foreign labour, primarily relies on the Minimum Wage Model. Despite the recent increase to RM1,500 per month with annual rises of 5.24% for Peninsular Malaysia and 6.49% for Sabah and Sarawak since 2013 recorded, overall labour productivity only managed a 2.3% annual increase from 2013 to 2022. This disparity between consistent minimum wage growth and slower productivity escalation poses indirect risks of potential job losses or underemployment in the long run. Could the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) provide a solution or bring about a positive impact to our wage landscape?
We appreciate the fact that the MOF has acknowledged the need for fiscal discipline and took the bold steps to move towards reducing the nation’s fiscal deficit progressively cognizant of the implications of any major shift in strategy. Nevertheless, we are relieved that the fiscal deficit for 2024 is targeted at 4.3% compared to 5% and above in the last two years.
In addition, we are glad that Budget 2024 attempts to redistribute savings from impending subsidy rationalisation and savings from more prudent government spending to widen the spread of aid, assistance, cash transfers to lower- and middle-income groups, and farmers. PM Anwar also assured Malaysians that the government will exercise responsible spending use the savings from lower subsidies to directly fund development activities including green initiatives, improving productivity of agro- activities and prioritise improving the living conditions for millions of government personnel.
