‘Yes’ to green energy, ‘no’ to nuke

BEIJING: Malaysia is working on promoting green energy by switching to renewable energy generation, says Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said there were suggestions to replace conventional power with solar and wind energy.

Malaysia, he added, was not affected by strong winds, but there were suggestions to build wind turbines in the sea off the east coast of the peninsula.

“We have not approved this,” he said, adding that Malaysia was also looking into the use of solar power.

“We will certainly switch to renewable energy,” he said.

However, he replied “no” to the option of using nuclear power.

Dr Mahathir was responding to a question on Malaysia’s plan to utilise green energy during a dialogue with 40 Chinese investors here yesterday.

He is here to attend the Second Belt and Road Forum for Inter­national Cooperation.

To a question on the tax system, the Prime Minister said Malaysia had no plans to increase taxes.

The government was looking into ways to reduce taxes instead, he added.

“We have reduced taxes for import of luxury goods and this helps businesses to grow because more people can come to shop in Malaysia.

“The government will study whether we can make the country more attractive and business-friendly,” he said.

Dr Mahathir also assured foreign investors that Malaysia’s policies would remain the same despite Pakatan Harapan winning the 14th General Election.

“Malaysia is a very stable country. We do not change much, so you can be comfortable with the rules and laws.

“Despite a change of government, our policies have remained the same,” he added.

Earlier yesterday, Dr Mahathir visited Huawei’s research centre, where he was briefed on the company’s 5G technology, cloud services and other smart applications.

He also met Ren Zhengfei, founder of the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment maker.

The two discussed ways to leverage on information and communications technology to facilitate the improvement of Malaysia’s economic development.