PUTRAJAYA – The current political stability in the country will enable the unity government to fully focus on developing and expanding the country’s economy to a better level next year.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government would focus its efforts on improving domestic investments and attracting more foreign investments to further boost and expand the country’s economy.
“The focus (of the government) is on the strength of the economy, be it domestic or foreign investments – and this is related to, for example, in terms of governance, ease of doing business, speed, approval and reducing bureaucracy.
“…our priority (next year) is to manage this country, as well as to correct, fix and improve (the economy),” he said during the prime minister’s dialogue session with chief editors and senior editors of the country’s electronic, print and online media here today.
Anwar said that, apart from that, the cooperation from the unity government MPs also indirectly helped his administration to be more organised and effective.
The prime minister said although the experience gained from helming the leadership for the past year can be described as challenging, he is, nonetheless, proud because the various parties in the unity government are seen to have given their full cooperation.
“The measures we took – be it governance, fighting corruption, setting transparent rules in procurement and Madani programmes, economy and other programmes – didn’t seem to face any problems,” said Anwar, who is also the finance minister.
Besides the economy, he said the government will also ensure the mastery of Bahasa Melayu and English continues to be empowered under the country’s educational system.
“Energy transition and digital transformation require a strong paradigm shift, this also includes mastery in Bahasa Melayu and putting priority on English in the education system from next year, as I mentioned before,” he said.
Anwar, at the same time, also expressed concerns over the orientation of outdated thinking based on narrow racial understanding and the politicisation of Islamic understanding – leading to a narrow mindset as well as being quick to judge others.
“I would like to stress again that we must draw the line. (We) must be free to discuss, (and) explain questions on religion freely. But if we go to the extent of judging, simply labelling people ‘kafir’, then that must be checked by laws and regulations,” he said. – December 23, 2023