The ‘take off’ year

A NEW year, a new beginning, and it always brings new hope. We’d surely want 2024 to be productive for our nation.

In fact, the coming 12 months are expected to constitute the Take Off Year for Malaysia.

Now a year in office, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s ability to hold on to his job is no longer a subject of speculation. He has the numbers he wants in Parliament, the state elections in five states are over and he has prioritised the economy.

All the billions of ringgit from investment drives promised would mean nothing unless they are executed now, and that should be our main concern.

Malaysians are exhausted by endless politicking because it depletes our energy and forces our hand in stumping up huge chunks of funds to conduct these elections. Please don’t even consider holding council elections.

It’s counter-productive when polls in this country always run parallel to the race and religion narrative. Local government elections don’t benefit the people much either, at least in the present circumstances.

Malaysia can expect a good year with the economy continuing to grow at 4%. It may be a moderate projection, but it still augurs well for us. Job and income opportunities will continue to expand, pushing us forward towards becoming a high-income status country.

With economic growth comes urbanisation and modernisation of our society, so let’s hope for a switch in social and political values more in line with universal trends.

But former Finance Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim feels that those treading the moral high ground within our religious society will continue to push their ideas of what Malaysia should be as a Muslim majority nation.

“However, there is no reason to worry about the noise from the conservatives. As Malays are now more educated than 50 years ago, they are becoming more exposed to the universal values of individual rights and freedoms.

“This trend can be seen in the rising stars in the political arena where young Malay leaders are becoming more vociferous about human rights and freedom.

“They will keep the country moving up to become a respectable member of the international community,” he added.

Mohd Sheriff is also former Khazanah Nasional managing director and founder member of the influential G25, a civil society organisation promoting tolerance and moderation on race and religion. He said our young politicians have shown they are clearly interested in the nation’s economic growth while lauding the PM’s focus on the economy being the most important aspect in his Madani vision.

According to a report by Maybank, 2024 “should be a better year for Malaysia on several fronts.

“It will be a year of execution of macro blueprints launched in 2023, as well as a year of delivery, especially in fiscal reforms, to bring the country’s balance sheet back to stronger footing.”

While it acknowledges headwinds from the US economy’s “soft lands” and China’s growth slowing in 2024, “we see green shoots sprouting in Asean’s exports and manufacturing, brightening their growth outlook.”

Maybank predicts Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth to be a firmer +4.4% against this year’s estimated +3.9%.

Nikkei, in its Dec 24, 2023, analysis, reported that the Malaysian government’s main goal is to achieve an annual rate of over 5.5%, a target specified in the Madani plan.

“Malaysia’s gross domestic product grew 8.7% last year, the highest in 22 years, and growth for this year is estimated at 4%.Given its relatively young population, domestic demand is expected to further expand. The country’s semiconductor and other sectors are also attracting foreign direct investment as alternative supply chain bases amid mounting US-China tensions,” it added.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes that Malaysia’s growth is projected to pick up slightly to 4.3%, supported by resilient private consumption and a rebound in public spending while the World Bank projects a moderate rise in GDP growth for 2024 at 4.3% from 4.2% previously.

The coming year will be an important one for Malaysia-China relations as the two nations celebrate its 50th diplomatic anniversary with plenty of celebrations, and hopefully, more investments even as the Chinese economy slows down. China has been Malaysia’s top trading partner for 40 years and it makes sense that Malaysia prioritises this giant nation, without diminishing its trade ties with the United States and Japan.

So, opposition politicians should be mindful of their comments, which are viewed as racist in nature, because it harms our ties with the republic. Incredulous accusations that Putrajaya is now granting Malaysian citizenship to 54,000 Chinese nationals, revamped conditions for the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme to give automatic permanent resident (PR) status to Chinese applicants and harping on Chinese tourists getting visa-free entry – conveniently excluding the same benefits are accorded to those from India and the Arab region – are not sitting well with many.

It’s one thing to score political points, but it doesn’t benefit Malaysia when spinning fake news because our country must compete with its Asean partners for the China market. It’s tantamount to shooting ourselves in the foot.

China, for example, has committed to investing nearly US$39bil (RM180bil) in Malaysia, Reuters reported, with automaker Geely pledging US$10bil (RM46bil) for our nation, according to Bloomberg.

In many countries, opposition leaders are invited to promote the investment drives of their nations, and political differences are put aside in pitching for the sales. Let’s take stock – we all need to disregard political ideologies to push for these investment sales.

Malaysia attracted RM225bil of approved investment in services (RM117.7bil), manufacturing (RM99.8bil) and primary sectors (RM7.5bil), which is a 6.6% increase from the RM211bil approved investments in the same period last year.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) accounted for a substantial 55.9% or RM125.7bil of the total approved investments while Domestic Direct Investment (DDI) contributed 44.1% or RM99.3bil.

As of Aug 31, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) is supervising more than 984 proposed projects involving estimated investments amounting to RM105.3bil.

There are reasons to be hopeful, even if Malaysians are often the worst critics of our beloved country.

Our PM has been the nation’s top salesman, and we hope that 2024 will be the Take Off Year for Malaysia.

A truly Happy New Year to everyone.