More needs to be done for businesses

Boosting market: To boost the Malaysian stock market, the government can consider more facilitative admission criteria for the listing of new economy companies as well as look into providing listing grants, advised Daim. — AP

Tun Daim Zainuddin wields huge influence in both business and policies and his comments carry a lot of weight in terms of reading the tea leaves of the government’s thinking. Yesterday, the former finance minister and chairman of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) spoke about the political situation in Malaysia and today, he speaks business. Below are his thoughts to a series of questions raised by StarBiz.

In hindsight, was it right to replace the Goods and Services Tax (GST) with the Sales and Service Tax (SST) as people are still complaining about the high cost of living?The cost of living is not solely because of the SST. There are many factors involved and these need to be addressed in a holistic manner to bring about a lowering of the prices of goods.