UMNO: Chump, Not Champ
9 January 2010 | 2,663 views | View blog reactionsJuara Rakyat? LMAO.
“Jual-lah Rakyat” is more befitting of UMNO’s stature and recent track record.
A Juara Rakyat would be more protective of minority interests. UMNO didn’t show up for the Christians in the “Allah” issue.
But what am I talking about. UMNO has always been and will always be a Juara Melayu.
Minorities and their interests will always come second for UMNO.
In fact, in many instances, it’s Melayu first, second and third.
What’s worse, UMNO does not so much lead the Malays as pander to them. Even when they are in error.
UMNO is a party of the Melayuhideen: My race, right or wrong.
UMNO is the Melayuhideen. And the Melayuhideen are legion.
Non-Malays and non-Muslims would do well to fully understand the events of recent days. See it for what it is.
Najib gives RM500,000 to the church and says:
“This is a sign of government’s sincerity.” [The Malaysian Insider]
Earlier, he says:
“Do not simply blame Umno when there is any problem, when churches were torched, fingers were pointed at Umno. We have condemned the attack.” [The Malaysian Insider]
Are you going to let this motherfucker buy you off with a little money and the supposed condemnation of his party?
This is how it always happens: The Melayuhideen run riot, the UMNO president comes round with a box of plasters and a mouthful of niceties.
That is standard operating procedure.
The UMNO president is always reactive when it comes to minorities because that is the nature of his party — the Melayuhideen come first, right or wrong.
So remember, UMNO is no Juara Rakyat. Remember that and you will be fine.
Phenomenon Of The Decade
1 January 2010 | 1,997 views | View blog reactionsEveryone’s come out with lists of Best Of or Worst Of [fill in blank] The Decade.
I’ve gone one better, I believe.
After much thinking and ball-scratching, I’ve decided to announce my pick for Malaysian Phenomenon Of The Decade.
No, it’s not The Det, although he came in second … awwww, I’m sorry. My apologies to all M-Wankers©™ out there, but your Saviour and Master (S&M, for short) lacked the little bit extra that the judges were looking for. Pitching tu kena jaga.
The Malaysian Phenomenon Of The Decade is … [drumroll] … Corruption.
Corruption and twin brother-cum-fuck buddy Abuse of Power (yes, it is quite an incestuous arrangement they have going on there) put in an outstanding performance over the last then years, and it doesn’t look like it’s about to lose steam anytime soon.
This baby has legs longer than Maria Sharapova’s and with the way we supposedly fight corruption in Malaysia, I wouldn’t bet my left testicle that Corruption will not again run away with the award in 2020.
I mean, ever wondered why anchovies are expensive? It’s because the bloody government go and tangkap all the ikan bilis! LMAO. Good one eh? I put a lot of thought in that. No? Never mind.
So come on up Corruption and collect your prize, the purchase of which was generously funded by the taxpayers of Malaysia.
[Applause][Standing ovation]
[Corruption, clad in white suit and dark glasses, gives Abuse of Power wet kiss with some tongue action. Goes on stage and lights up big fat cigar with vintage, out-of-circulation RM1,000 note. Throws fistfuls of money at audience, hiphop-style. Beaming Prime Minister hands him trophy]
POINTERS for Najib.
According to a Merdeka Centre poll conducted in October last year, 81% of Malaysians believe corruption is a serious problem in the country.
74% are dissatisfied with the way the Federal Government is handling corruption. [Note to Najib: "Handling" here means to address the problem, not "hand over" the money]
Propaganda: Utusan Shows How It’s Done
1 January 2010 | 1,859 views | View blog reactionsRakyat puas hati cara Najib jalankan tugas sebagai PM.
That’s what the headline said in an Utusan Malaysia article today.
Intrigued, I read on.
The newspaper cited a survey carried out by Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research.
Cool, I thought. The latest results of Merdeka Centre’s continuous survey of the Prime Minister’s approval ratings were out.
Bullshit.
It was the latest survey alright, but one done in September last year.
Now I’m not blaming Merdeka Centre.
They released the survey results way back in October. They issued a statement to announce it.
Several news reports on the survey results were written and published, by The Malaysian Insider, Sin Chew Jit Poh, and Channel News Asia. In October last year.
Utusan Malaysia obviously decided that the results were still fresh and relevant to be used for its first issue of the new year.
Some editor probably decided that it would be good to kick off 2010 with a bit of feel good news about Najib.
Who cares if it’s old shite that others have written about before? After all, it is based on technically the latest available statistics on the Prime Minister’s approval ratings, right?
And Utusan Malaysia does mention that the survey was carried out in September 2009:
Golongan India dan Melayu mencatatkan peratus responden berpuas hati yang paling tinggi iaitu 68 peratus responden India sementara 64 peratus responden Melayu berpuas hati dengan kepimpinan Perdana Menteri.
Sementara bagi responden Cina pula, 36 peratus bersetuju dengan cara Perdana Menteri berbanding 25 peratus tidak bersetuju dan 38 peratus lagi tidak memberikan sebarang respons.
Ini merupakan kaji selidik Merdeka Center bagi suku ketiga 2009 untuk mendapatkan pandangan umum di kalangan pengundi berdaftar yang ditemu bual melalui telefon.
Kaji selidik yang disiarkan dalam laman web Merdeka Center www.merdeka.org itu dijalankan pada 4 September 2009 sehingga 14 September 2009.
Good stuff. What Utusan Malaysia does not mention is that for the period, Najib’s approval rating had dipped to 56% from its 65% high in June 2009.
It dropped across all ethnic groups in Peninsular Malaysia.
Maybe Utusan Malaysia should have waited for fresh results before going on this initiative to blow sunshine up the Prime Minister’s nether regions.
If there is any forthchoming that is.
Merdeka Centre’s a bit late on that score. Wassup, y’all?
2010 Is Here
1 January 2010 | 1,633 views | View blog reactionsSo many more things to do. So far still to go.
The journey is a long one. The end is nowhere in sight.
Driving Mr Fernandes
28 December 2009 | 1,939 views | View blog reactionsSo Tony Fernandes now has to look elsewhere for money to fund the Lotus F1 team after Petronas decided to go with Mercedes GP.
We also got wind that the team has been officially entered as “Lotus F1″ and not 1Malaysia F1, as we had been made to believe when this thing was launched some time in September.
This is getting further and further away from the initial yarn of a “national F1 team” announced Hype Minister Najib Razak then:
“This is the Malaysian team. The car was designed at the SIC, manufactured at the SIC, tested at the SIC and the car is Malaysian-made. Even the pit-stop team consists of Malaysians,” he said.
… The statement quoted Najib as saying that the country’s participation in Formula One with the national team had far reaching objectives, mainly the advancement of the country’s automotive industry development from the technological aspect including initiatives in green technology.
… He claimed that by creating a national F1 team, the country was taking “its motor sports to its pinnacle, thus ensuring its place in this internationally embraced sports that had scaled the heights of entertainment.” [The Star]
I think Najib got cold feet after arguments were raised that whatever public funds to be pumped into this adventure — and lots would be needed — were better spent elsewhere.
What more, to have his pride and joy “1Malaysia” run the risk of being too closely associated with backmarkers, also-rans, losers. Can’t have that, can we?
So much for that then.
But I am kind of sad that we are not going to have an official national F1 team.
I wanted to see the colours of our flag all over an F1 car. Tak menang pun takpa.
Maybe we can still have a “national F1 team”.
Maybe Tony should get a “ditaja oleh rakyat Malaysia” thing going like the time many of us chipped in to get the World Cup televised live a while ago.
Here’s a crazy idea: Every dude who gives money will have his or her picture on the car.
We use all the pictures to form a digital collage of our flag … you know, that pictures within a picture kind of thing?
We then slap this on the car.
Ok, I will be under no illusions that we can raise the US$85 million that Tony reportedly sought from Petronas.
But fuck that, this be our car. The Malaysian people’s F1 car. With our mugs, tiny though they may individually be, on it.
Great thing about it is the money sponsored is given willingly, purposefully and voluntarily — not through the Government, Petronas or some GLC.
At the very least, you create some publicity and maybe attract bigger sponsers.
I think it’s worth a shot, Tony, especially if you drive this through the Internet.
C’maaaaaahn.
Weakling Malaysia
25 December 2009 | 1,838 views | View blog reactionsThe thefts of the two jet fighter engines belonging to the air force is classic Malaysia.
It’s like the scene out of a movie, and if the thefts have proven anything, it is that Malaysia is a pretentious little nation.
We have people in positions of power who would fit in any corrupt African dictatorship.
And we have people on the streets who would fit in any African country ruled by a corrupt dictatorship.
Granted, we are much better off in many areas than these countries but the problem with us is we think we so great but we not.
Like KJ said, we are a middling player in the league of nations.
But that’s not the worst about us.
The absolutely worst thing about Malaysia is that we know what needs to be done to make us great, but our supposedly great leaders have no balls in making it happen.
None. Not even vestigial remnants or some such semblance of testicles.
Help Is On The Way: Maybe Najib should let Charles Atlas prove that he can make him a new man. Why not? He’s got nothing to lose.
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Leaders like Najib will not be able to make it happen.
People like him are fearful of upsetting the proles, the tasteless rabble, because unwashed though the masses may be, they determine how long he stays in power.
The voter base for elections to the top posts in UMNO has been expanded tremendously. Najib will need to appease many more people, who have massive influence on the grassroots, than other party presidents have had to.
Is Najib the sort of man who would force them to give up their “rights”? FORCE them, because it really has come to that.
No, Najib wouldn’t do it even if his wife told him to. (Of course she won’t, what do you think she is, crazy?)
He doesn’t even dare show up at a Christmas reception organised by the Christian Federation of Malaysia, sending Idris Jala in his stead to deliver his speech which talked about Malaysians being bound by a common destiny.
The Mouth of Najib spoke of 1Malaysia but he himself was not there. Such irony made even more ironic by the presence of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim at the reception.
Some might argue that Najib does not fear but rather understands the concerns.
I say that when you are reluctant to do something, you will find a dozen excuses not to, maybe more, even when that something is the right thing to do.
We can have all the KPIs and NKRAs in the world but they will be useless if we refuse to budge when it comes to the crunch — radical changes to just a few but very important policies that would have a huge impact on our country.
So forgive me if I sound endlessly pessimistic of the country’s future. Leading Malaysia into the future requires balls but the only people who have proven that they have some are those who stole the jet fighter engines.
Yesterday Once More
22 December 2009 | 2,252 views | View blog reactionsYou don’t say?
Effendi “Seven years in the Cabinet as national service” Norwawi in The Sunday Star:
… In 2008, 2.062 million unskilled foreign workers entered Malaysia. (This is the official figure, what is the unofficial?) In the last seven years, entry of unskilled foreign workers have increased by 300%, and they have formed 30% of our work force!
Pretty good use of the exclamation mark there, Eff. (Can I call you Eff?)
But hey, weren’t you a minister over a good part of those last seven years during which unskilled foreign workers — migros, I call ‘em — increased threefold?!?
See, I be skilled in punctuation too.
Oh well, whatever, nevermind — Mendiang Kurt Cobain. He blew my mind with his music. Kurt blew his with a shotgun. May he rest in pieces.
Anyway, what is Najib gonna do about our middling, mediocre economy? What can he do? What does he dare do?
Outfoxed: If Najib doesn’t have the balls, I say we might as well get Megan here to go take a look under the hood and try to fix our engine of growth.
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If you’re feeling too happy and need some sort of a downer, read MIER’s Ariff in The Sun.
An excerpt of Ariff’s take on what went wrong:
This is not to deny that rapid growth was necessary, but there was a policy failure to ensure that rapid growth was driven by steady productivity gains, which would have made it sustainable.
Instead, the authorities took the shortcut by allowing foreign workers to come in droves, in an attempt to maintain the country’s competitiveness based on a low-wage regime (and not merely to meet labour shortages in the so-called 3D – “difficult, dangerous and dirty” – jobs).
Herein lies the paradox of Malaysia trying to keep wages low (to remain competitive) and wanting to be a developed country, missing the point that labour costs would have stayed low, despite rising wages, if there were productivity gains.
In the absence of the massive influx of foreign workers, wages would have risen and employers would have resorted to labour-saving technology to boost productivity (to rein in labour costs).
Malaysia would then have automated and moved up the value chain through industrial upgrading.
Alas, Malaysia took the wrong turn in the early 1990s. Ironically, the long-term vision was undermined by a short-sighted growth strategy, which was pursued single-mindedly with a high premium on short-term growth at the expense of long-run goals. Malaysia had inadvertently shot itself in the foot.
That is in the past. Though we are saddled with the consequences of our leaders’ short-sightedness, it would be more worthwhile to focus on fixing this shit that we are in.
So what’s Najib gonna do about it?
Does he have the balls to push through the tuff stuff and confront and uproot vested interests and entrenched Bumiputraism?
Or is it gonna be yesterday once more? Shoo be do lang lang …
BTN Saved My Life
14 December 2009 | 2,399 views | View blog reactionsListen to this asshole:
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Ahmad Maslan said today … “millions of people had attended the BTN course since 1974. Malaysia would have been destroyed if not for the BTN course. It made the nation good and successful.” [Malaysian Insider]
O thank you, BTN, for saving the nation from destruction.
Shall we prostrate before the merciful BTN?
Shall we erect a shrine to it?
Shall we send our children to its soothing ministrations so that they may return as fine young Malaysians who know where they sit – Melayus in First Class, all others in Coach.
Asshole.
And here’s more oral defecation:
“Those who say that BTN course is racist are afraid of their own shadows,” he added.
Well, people who espouse ethnic superiority cast none, the bleeding vampires that they are.
Get it? Or is that too sophisticated for you to wrap your Ketuanan Melayu head around?
Motherfucker.
Bleeding 1Malaysia
14 December 2009 | 2,233 views | View blog reactionsIt’s kinda intriguing to read about Hair, J Low, 1 Malaysia Development Bhd and a bunch of fuckin’ Arabs.
You would think the characters in this drama couldn’t be more disparate but they all got one thing in common.
One thing to rule them all. One thing to find them.
One thing to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Money.
This from the latest issue of The Edge:
One of the key peopke who had advised the King in establishing Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) was Low Taek Jho, a young merchant banker with strong links to the Middle East. Known as Jho Low to his friends, the young man is also said to have done a few major corporate deals.
His lavish lifestyle in New York was the subject of a feature article in the New York Post last month. Jho, the son of Penang businessman Datuk Larry Low – a former shareholder and director of MWE Holdings Bhd – has however denied that it was he who had splurged on a lavish celebration as had been reported.
Coming back to TIA, the idea was to establish a fund along the lines of Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. In fact, Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, CEO of Mubadala and chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority, still sits on the board of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
Lots more stuff in there.
Including indications that some dealmakers made a killing in 1MDB’s RM5billion bond issue.
I’d by partying in the Big Apple too if it was me.
So where does Hair come in? I see strands of it all over the wrong places.
Watch this space. You ain’t see nothing yet.
I GIVE fair warning.
I hit the previous PM hard on this blog. Really hard.
It would only be fair if I uphold the same standards for Jibby.
This involves public money. Lots of it.
If you or anyone around you fucks around with our shit, Datuk Seri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak, I will fuck you in the ass, regardless of whether you are partial to it or not.
I promise.
ALSO READ Sakmongkol AK47: Who is minding the store?
enuff said for now.
Husni Hanadzlah’s Earth-Shattering Speech
3 December 2009 | 4,271 views | View blog reactionsAddress and Official Opening
YB Dato’ Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, Minister of Finance II Malaysia
on the occasion of the “National Economic Outlook Conference 2010-2011”
Tuesday, 1 December 2009, at 9.00 a.m.
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Malaysian Institute of Economic Research – MIER
YBhg Members of the Board of Trustees and Advisory Panel of MIER
YBhg Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Mohamed Ariff
Executive Director of MIER
YBhg Tan Sri-Tan Sri and Dato’-Dato’, Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
Good morning everyone
I thank MIER for inviting me to officiate the opening ceremony of MIER’s “National Economic Outlook Conference 2010-2011. It is an honour and a great pleasure for me to be here.
Ladies and Gentlemen
1. The Government intends to revise its estimate for next year’s GDP growth from 3.0% upwards. We have identified several sources of growth and we will enhance our capacity through domestic demand. We are also looking to strengthen the private sector’s contribution to the GDP through the Government-linked companies. We have identified several projects in the pipeline and we will bring them forward for implementation in the first quarter of next year. We are reasonably confident that a target of 5.0% is achievable.
2. Next year we will unveil the Tenth Malaysian Plan. We will focus on initiatives to revitalise private initiative as the primary engine of growth. In this respect, we will improve the dynamics of competition in the domestic marketplace, focus on technology and innovation in niche areas including green and bio technologies. We will develop these niches on existing comparative advantages and provide soft & hard infrastructure for the knowledge economy.
3. With all these, we will create new catalysts of growth, boost demand for knowledge workers and skilled labour, raise private and social returns to education and skills upgrading, and a more balanced internal economic structure with a bigger role for domestic demand. Externally, we will also continue to further promote closer economic, trade and financial linkages within the region.
4. For the longer term, our Prime Minister has tasked the New Economic Advisory Council (NEAC) to develop a new economic model to transform the country into a high income economy. This journey will be an exciting as it would represent the single biggest transformative process since the introduction of the New Economic Policy in 1970.
5. There will be many changes. Quoting the Prime Minister, business is not as usual. Fundamental and structural economic reforms are critical if our economy is to be transformed successfully. Malaysia is trapped in a low-value-added, low wage and low productivity structure. While Singapore and Korea’s nominal per capita GDP grew within the last three decades by 9 and 12 times, respectively, ours only by a factor of 4.
6. Amongst our peers, China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, our real GDP growth in the last three years was the second lowest at 5.5%. Our manufacturing sector is not investing up the value chain while our services sector remains low in growth and under-developed.
7. The transformation is particularly urgent when we take the external environment into account. The global environment is changing. We can no longer rely on our traditional trading partners and we need to address the competitive pressure from other emerging markets on our existing exports.
8. Our economy has been stagnating in the last decade. We have lost our competitive edge to remain as the leader of the pack in many sectors of the economy. Our private investment has been steadily in decline. Our private investment is now half of what it was since the Asian crisis while both manufacturing and service sectors have become less capital intensive. For the period 2000 to 2007, our investment per value-added in percentage nominal terms in manufacturing dropped from 30.6% to 21.7% while the services sector, the decline is from 26.8% to 22.1%.
9. We need to restore the private sector’s role in the economy, serving as the primary engine of growth. How do we re-catalyse the private sector? In this regard, I wish to take this opportunity to articulate the concept of 1Malaysia in economic terms. There are some quarters, the cynics and the pessimists, whom view the 1Malaysia concept as another slogan gimmick. I assure you, it is not. We know that the bumiputras do not hold the bulk of Malaysia’s wealth. A simple analysis of our capital account will show that there has been a continuous outflow of capital from our shores. In this mobile world, capital will always flow to jurisdictions that are perceived to be more secure, not necessarily the ones that give a higher return.
10. Therefore, we have to rebuild an environment that gives confidence to the private investors. The critical pillars for us to restore confidence are leadership and governance, macroeconomic stability, market driven resource mobility, strong and effective institutions and a knowledge and innovation society. Allow me to articulate these five pillars, one by one.
First: Leadership and Governance
11. Political stability is a necessary component of leadership, especially so in a government that is based on a coalition of component parties. If there is to be continuity in a leadership structure that has the track record of a successful economy manager, Malaysians have to embrace acceptance of our differences and diversities which have been the base of our coalition. We also recognise that all Malaysians must be given equal opportunity to participate in the economy. Performance must be the primary rod of measurement. In this regard, we have announced that there will no longer direct negotiations for any public projects unless it is for the procurement that is related to national defence and security matters. There have been concerns that the Government is abandoning the bumiputras. This will not happen. The responsibility to develop and improve the economic standing of the bumiputras is the bedrock of this Administration’s mandate.
12. Nevertheless, we have to do it differently. There may have been a number of bumiputras who are awarded contracts whom are not genuine entrepreneurs. Yes, we encourage collaboration, of course. Consortiums and strategic alliances are a good thing but there must be a demonstrable element of genuine collaboration. For years the Government has denounced this “Ali Baba’ syndrome. It’s about time we get tough on it. Meritocracy must prevail. This is necessary for the long term economic survival of the bumiputras, of ourselves.
13. If we are to ensure there is fairness in the marketplace, there must also be a corresponding strengthening of our public institutions. Transparency and adherence to the highest standards of governance is something that we must strive towards. In this regard, we wish to see greater participation from all races in the public institutions, where performance is the key measurement. The introduction of NKRAs and KPIs is the first step in that direction.
Second: Macroeconomic Stability
14. Moving forward, we have to ensure that our fiscal position is restored to a more sustainable level. While the broad objective of increasing private investment in the economy will be continuously pursued, from the Treasury’s point of view, we also need to ensure that we receive optimal return from our hard-earned tax revenue. There have been too many leakages in the past and less than productive spending.
15. I do not for one minute underestimate the difficulty of achieving this. One of the most difficult things that anyone in management can tell you is “cultural change”. How can anyone change a cultural mindset that has been ingrained for so many years? But I have faith. Malaysians had developed all these centuries a strong survival gene. When push comes to shove, we change. The key is – there must be someone or something to do the shoving. The world is changing and that’s the biggest shove that I can think of.
Third: Market-driven Resource Mobility
16. The Government spends RM8,000.00 per capita annually in numerous subsidies . Not only this places a huge weight on our operating expenditure but it also create distortions in our marketplace. We need to realign this. We will re-calibrate the distribution of the subsidies. We want to ensure there is greater precision in its application. Nonetheless, we also want to ensure that there will be no erosion in the standards of living for the underprivileged and the poor, regardless of race or ethnicity.
17. We must also consider the gradual dismantling of our open-ended protection of specific sectors and industries which have introduced a climate of complacency and artificial levels of supply. The long term success of the nation’s economy must take precedence over the short term interests of a few protected groups.
Fourth: Strong and Effective Institutions
18. Entrepreneurs need to know that the public institutions are transparent and are run by the highest standards of governance. Entrepreneurs need to know that they do not compete in a market whereby their competitors seemed to possess institutional advantage. We need to see better competition policies and better regulatory environment which can allow market forces to operate in an orderly manner.
Fifth: Knowledge and Innovation-Driven Society
19. One of the biggest challenges that we face is the development of an innovative knowledge-driven society. Fortunately, we have a substantial middle class whom understands the value of knowledge. Unfortunately, our institutions of higher education have proven to be a disappointment. The mismatch between our industry’s needs and the output from the local universities has resulted in Malaysia having the highest unemployment rate of graduates, at close to 4.0%, compared to, for example, Ireland, Korea and Singapore.
We have to consider introducing greater competition in our halls of higher learning. We have to introduce greater diversity in the range of capabilities in the members of the academia. If there is a lack of self-induced factors in our in our undergraduates and academics to strive for greater performance, maybe we should introduce external factors to drive excellence.
20. If there is one operative word that runs through consistently in all the points that I have just put across to you just now, the word would be competition. 1Malaysia equals inclusivity and by being inclusive, we introduce competition. We have to increase the level of competition in all the relevant sectors of our economy. To those that compete and win, there will be a set of rewards in terms of higher wages and awards. A performance-based culture does not accept mediocrity. We want to see a steady decline in those that suffer from the “dependency syndrome”.
21. Countries that have made successful transition into a high-income economy such Japan, Korea and Singapore have a single commonality – their workforce has strong work ethics, a disciplined mind and the hunger to succeed.
Ladies and gentlemen
22. Historically, Malaysia never subscribed to any dogmatic approach to any particular ideology or economic school of thought. We are pragmatic people. Malaysia is a unique country that has its own particular set of dynamics. However, in a globalised world where economic and financial integration is inevitable, there will be a greater level of equalisation in our market economy with other participating economies. We cannot participate in half way measures although in our own pragmatic way, we will participate in ways and means that are prudent and cautious so as not to disrupt the existing equilibrium too much. A measured approach is called for but the end-destination is clear.
23. The journey ahead is certainly exciting but also daunting. The next decade will prove to be a period of unprecedented change in this Nation’s economic history since the last thirty years. Indeed, we are embarking on this adventure in a period where the external environment is also going through a level of transformation that is unparalleled since the conclusion of World War II. The challenges are great but if we persevere, God willing, we shall succeed.
24. I trust this conference will address these and other relevant issues so as to provide inputs not only for the policy-makers but also the captains of industries in the private sector. I wish you all a very successful and fruitful conference.
25. I thank the Chairman and the Board of Trustees of MIER for extending today’s kind invitation. I also thank the delegates to this conference for putting aside their time and efforts for this important annual event.
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is my honour and pleasure to declare MIER’s “National Economic Outlook Conference 2010-2011” officially open. Thank you.
