By Debra Chong
KLANG, April 17 - Datuk Seri Najib Razak has a whole laundry load of economic woes to sort through, if the suggestions forwarded by the ethnic Chinese business community are anything to go by.
Among the key worries brought up by the community in a closed door dialogue with the prime minister are the cost of doing business, including gas and electricity tariffs, bank financing, and double levy charges in hiring foreign workers.
Apart from the general pressure to reduce the rising crime rate, the Chinese businessmen want Najib to reduce the energy tariffs for industry users; to quicken the implementation of construction projects under the Ninth Malaysia Plan as well as those under the first and second stimulus packages; reconsider the suspension of the 0.5 per cent levy on human resource development fund; resolve cheating in cases of land transactions; encourage made in Malaysia products and services; help major league industries like the steel industry to make big investments, which they believe will help the economy recover.
The Chinese businessmen also lobbied Najib to encourage investment from China, and for the central government to work together with the states to build up industries like the pulp and paper industry in Sabah and Sarawak.
“I will bring these suggestions for the government to consider at the national economic council exco,” Najib told reporters.
The prime minister was closeted for an hour with top leaders after the opening the 63rd annual general meeting of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM).
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