Beberapa rencana yang dikepilkan di sini sudah cukup untuk menjadi peringatan kepada Mahathir yang mengaku amat pandai menguruskan ekonomi. Inilah keranda-keranda yang sedang terbang yang akan menguji sejauh mana ekonomi dapat bertahan.

Pelabur sudah takut untuk datang kesini kerana beberapa sebab:

1- Polisi yang tidak menentu

2- Campurtangan politik dalam bisnes.

3- Budaya kroni, rasuah dan korupsi.

4- Isu Royalti, Bail out, Slow Restructuring

5- Perkauman sengaja ditiup oleh BN sendiri

6- Retorik Anti Asing

7- Budaya Ciplak dan Tiruan

Rafidah Aziz sepatutnya tidak terbang keluar negara - tangani semua masalah negara dulu, barulah pelabur dapat yaqin semula. Tahun lepas sahaja Rafidah sudah keluar merata negara, tetapi semakin ramai pelabur yang lari dari yang menjelma.

Kelembapan ekonomi A.S. akan melemahkan Malaysia - khususnya dalam sektor elektronik. Berikut antara contoh jumlah kerja yang akan hapuskan:

DaimlerChrysler : 26,000 (20%)
Xerox: 4,000 (5%)
HP: 1,770 (2%)

Singapura dijangka terganggu, inikan pula Malaysia yang lebih banyak kilangnya. Bernama menyebut 10,000 pekerja Singapura akan tergugat. Tetapi nasib Malaysia tidak disebut pula. Namun gelagat Rafidah menampakkan ada sesuatu yang tidak kena. Sebab dia terkena.

Rencana Rujukan:

Corruption in Malaysia tops concerns of US investors

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 (AFP) - Malaysia must cut corruption and excessive government intervention in business if it wants to win the regional contest for foreign investment, a US business leader said Tuesday.

Nicholas Zeffreys, head of the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce, also said anti-Western rhetoric about economic "colonialists" is scaring away investors.

"Corruption (prevention) needs big improvement. There is a high level of corruption in the Malaysian economy," Zeffreys told a business conference.

"Malaysia Incorporated -- a model that needs to be looked at. There is too much government intervention in the Malaysian economy," he added.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad touts "Malaysia Inc." as a model of cooperation between government and business. Mahathir frequently complains that unfettered globalisation is akin to colonialism.

Asked why government participation is bad, Zeffreys said less than five percent of the Malaysian economy was competitive.

"When you live and die at the whim of government intervention you will never going to become the global country that you need to be. Corporations here have too much government involvement and it is rampant," he said.

Malaysia "does not score high" in the area of predictability of government actions, he added.

He also cited difficulties in finding skilled workers like engineers and criticised anti-Western rhetoric.

"It is scaring off US investors," he said. "(Being) told they are colonialists is not helping.

"There need to be positive words and actions that Malaysia is a business-friendly country and that US and European companies are welcome."

Zeffreys said Malaysia had made "fantastic strides" and was capable of attracting and retaining investment. But what made it successful in the past would not make it successful in future.

He also warned that some US companies in Malaysia may cut working hours or pay amid the slowdown in the US economy.

Finance Ministry adviser Mustapa Mohamed told the conference earlier that corporate restructuring would take longer than expected but there will be no let-up in the exercise.

He acknowledged concerns that restructuring was too slow.

"Given the complexities of restructuring and because our pace of recovery in the corporate sector is incremental, restructuring of these corporations will involve more time," he said.

"Let me assure you that there will be no let-up in the momentum of corporate and financial restructuring as well as the initiatives made in enhancing corporate governance and investor protection..."

Mustapa told a press conference later the government has not yet decided whether to revise the official 7.0 percent forecast for gross domestic product growth this year.

The independent Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, in a report released Monday, lowered its 2001 forecast to 5.0 percent from 6.3.

It cited slowing private consumption and reduced demand for electronic exports.

http://news.catcha.com/my/content.phtml?1&010&&afpnews.cgi&cat=malaysia&stor y=010130063502.23ryvli7.txt

Malaysia says corporate restructuring to take longer than expected

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 (AFP) - Corporate restructuring in Malaysia will take longer than expected but there will be no let-up in the exercise, Finance Ministry adviser Mustapa Mohamed said Tuesday.

Mustapa, in a speech to an economic conference, acknowledged concerns that corporate restructuring was too slow.

"Given the complexities of restructuring and because our pace of recovery in the corporate sector is incremental, restructuring of these corporations will involve more time," he said.

"Let me assure you that there will be no let-up in the momentum of corporate and financial restructuring as well as the initiatives made in enhancing corporate governance and investor protection..."

In a poll of regional economists published Sunday, four out of 11 cited inadequate or stalled corporate reform as a threat to the local economy.

Mustapa said Malaysia's economic outlook this year hinges on the prospects for major industrial economies, especially the United States.

"Presently we are optimistic that the US will be able to engineer a soft landing given that it has further room to manoeuvre both monetary and fiscal policies to sustain economic activities," he said.

Even given a sharp US downturn downturn, early indications "show that we will be able to sustain a moderate growth."

Mustapa told a press conference later the government has not yet decided whether to revise the official 7.0 percent forecast for gross domestic product growth this year.

The independent Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, in a report released Monday, lowered its 2001 forecast to 5.0 percent from 6.3.

It cited slowing private consumption and reduced demand for electronic exports.

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/npwo212.html

MARKET WATCH

Hold on to that job. Getting another might not be easy

Jan 30, 2001

THAT seems to be the message being sent by companies around the world.

Yesterday US car manufacturing giant DaimlerChrysler announced that it would be cutting 26,000 jobs. That is 20 per cent of its workforce in the US.

It is not the only one to lay off people.

Copier giant Xerox is struggling to hold its neck above water.

Reporting losses for the second consecutive quarter yesterday, it also said it will cut 4,000 jobs, about 4 per cent of its workforce.

It also warned of further lay-offs later this year. The company had about 92,000 employees around the world at last count.

Xerox had indicated that it would be cutting jobs but had not given any figures.

The Dutch banking and insurance group, ING, is also expected to cut at least 1,100 jobs outside the US.

Most of them would be its workers in London. This will help the group reduce its workforce in the investment banking sector by at least 2,500.

But the worst news is from the dotcom sector, which had been responsible for so much of the exuberance a couple of years ago.

Hewlett-Packard, the world's second largest computer maker, announced over the weekend that it would be sending off 2 per cent of its employees by April.

Considering that it has 88,500 workers worldwide, the 2 per cent translates into a headcount of 1,770.

SINGAPORE AFFECTED

This is bad news for its 6,000 workers in Singapore as well. Almost 120 of them might find themselves out of a job.

Hewlett-Packard's Singapore spokesman told The Straits Times that the impact in the region would be similar to that in the rest of the world.

The company said in a statement: "We expect this restructuring effort to reduce the number of positions in our marketing group."

As BBC Internet correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said, last year the extraordinary boom in the Internet sector finally came to an end.

Not only have many small companies such as UK-based lastminute.com, which saw its stock soaring to value it in excess of a billion pounds, seen their shares fall below selling price, even the big ones have not had it very good.

Internet search giant Altavista said it was laying off 200 workers because of sluggish advertising demand.

This is the reason given by Disney too for shutting down its go.com portal.

Said Disney's Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eisner: "The advertising community has abandoned the Internet... a portal may not be what we want."

This from a person who had said just last month that many media companies were giving up on their online businesses too soon and would regret it.

Since the beginning of the year Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, CNN, the news network owned by AOL Time Warner and the New York Times have axed hundreds of online jobs. - Wire services.

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/general/ge3001_19.htm

January 30 , 2001 20:05PM

Singapore to lay off 10.000 workers: Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 (Bernama) -- Some 10,000 workers including foreigners in Singapore are likely to be retrenched this year due to the anticipated slowdown in the US economy, Singapore Minister of State without portfolio Matthias Yao said Tuesday.

He said Singapore was however ready to face the impact in the event of an American economic downturn and move very fast to retrain the affected workers and help them find alternative jobs.

"If we look at the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, we have very severe retrenchment, like more than 20,000 workers per year. Even at the most severe, the workers actually found alternative jobs," he told reporters after calling on Deputy Human Resources Minister Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad, at his office, here.

Yao, who is also deputy secretary-general of the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC), is here attending a trade union meeting organised by the International Confederation of Trade Union-Asia Pacific Regional Office (ICFTU-APRO) and the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC).

Yao said that although job creation in the republic during a situation of an economic downturn may not be as high as during normal situation, there were enough jobs to absorb the retrenched workers.

"In previous years, job creation may be about 70,000 to 80,000 per year. At the (Asian economic) downturn, maybe about 30,000 to 40,000 per year," he said.

Yao said in any retrenchment exercise, Singaporean workers were more worried than perhaps the foreign workers because they know that they were actually expensive and were most likely to be retrenched.

"We have no law or regulation which says who has to be retrenched first," he said indirectly referring to the law in Malaysia which requires that in any retrenchment exercise, foreign workers would be the first to be retrenched.

According to Yao, Singapore offers training programmes at subsidised cost to all workers in the republic and some of the foreign workers were taking advantage of the opportunity.

"We welcome this because a better trained worker will help Singapore's economy and if they (the foreign workers) return home, they can help their own economy. That's good for everybody," he said.

Asked whether the issue of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) was discussed with Dr Abdul Latiff during the meeting, Yao said they did not because the issue had been included in the overall package which the Singapore and the Malaysian governments were negotiating.

Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz told the Dewan Rakyat in April last year that Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, in a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, stated that Singapore was prepared to relax on CPF withdrawals to enable contributors to withdraw in instalments of over two years.

However, Goh said that it could only be done after a comprehensive agreement on the negotiation package between the two countries, which means that Singapore wants Malaysia to settle the water issue first, according to Nazri.

An estimated RM2.26 billion in CPF contributions by Malaysian workers in Singapore as at April last year was not allowed to be withdrawn although they have stopped working in that country.

However, they could withdraw their savings upon reaching the age of 50 if they have not worked in the republic for the preceding two years.

Meanwhile, Dr Abdul Latiff said Malaysia would be able to absorb Malaysian workers who may be affected in the retrenchment exercise in Singapore because at present job availability in Malaysia was more than demand for jobs.

-- BERNAMA

Media Statement by DAP National Chairman Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, January 31, 2001:

Rafidah will do country more good to stay home to convince the government to halt recrudescence of communal politics and embark on serious political and economic reforms to win back investor confidence instead of globe-trotting to six continents in 11 trade missions this year

The International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz has lined up 11 trade missions this year which will take her to six continents in efforts to attract new foreign investments and create new markets.

The first trade mission to start on Feb 7 would take Rafidah to North America where she would be attending investment seminars in Los Angeles and Tucson in the US and Vancouver, Canada to meet with potential investors.

She would return to Canada and the United States from Sept 24 to Oct 2 for investment seminars in Philadelphia, Toronto and St Louis.

She would visit Europe from May 24 to June 2 attend investment seminars in Frankfurt, Germany; Paris, France; Milan, Italy and London, England and head for Australia for two weeks beginning Aug 5 for investment seminars in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Her other trade missions will cover China, Japan, South America, the Middle East and South Africa.

However, Rafidah will probably do the country more good to stay home to convince the government to halt the recrudescence of communal politics and embark on serious political and economic reforms to win back investor confidence instead of globe-trotting to six continents in 11 trade missions this year.

What is the use of Rafidah going round the world to try to attract foreign investors when investor confidence suffers relentless and unceasing bouts of attacks whether from the corporate shenanigans reeking with cronyism, bad corporate governance and the sacrifice of the interests of minority shareholders like the restructuring of Renong-UEM, the government?s outrageous "bailout" buying of Tajudin Ramli's 29.09% MAS equity at RM 8 per share while the market value is RM 3.68 and the RM 6 billion government bail out of two Light Rail Transit companies, PUTRA and STAR or the irresponsible recrudescence of communal politics as in the proposed 10,000-People "Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia" Gathering in Kampong Baru, Kuala Lumpur on Sunday?

Rafidah and the government should take serious note of the hard-hitting speech of the head of the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce, Nicholas Zeffreys, at the Malaysia 2001 Strategic Outlook Conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday that Malaysia must cut corruption and excessive government intervention in business if it wants to win the regional contest for foreign investment.

Zeffreys made the following pertinent points:

1. Anti-Western rhetoric about economic "colonialists" is scaring away investors. There is need for positive words and actions that Malaysia is a business-friendly country and that US and European companies are welcome.
   

2. Corruption (prevention) needs big improvement. There is a high level of corruption in the Malaysian economy.
   
   

3. There is too much government intervention in the Malaysian economy. Less than five percent of the Malaysian economy is competitive.
   

4. Malaysia "does not score high" in the area of predictability of government actions.
   
   

5. Malaysia had made "fantastic strides" and was capable of attracting and retaining investment. But what made it successful in the past would not make it successful in future.
   

The speech by the Finance Ministry adviser Datuk Mustapa Mohamed at the opening of the conference that corporate restructuring would take longer than expected although there will be no let-up in the exercise is not a plus to win investor confidence in view of the widespread perception that the Malaysian government has reversed economic restructuring reforms as evidenced by the several high-profile crony bailouts.

Mustapa does not gain any bonus points for credibility when he later told a press conference that the government has not yet decided whether to revise the official 7.0 percent forecast for gross domestic product growth this year, when the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research has lowered its earlier 2001 forecast to 5.0 percent from 6.3 because of the slowdown in the United States economy.

Before Rafidah embarks on her eleven trade missions to six continents this year to attract new foreign investments, she should first convince the Cabinet and government to remove the roadblocks to investor confidence and in particular the widespread perception that the government has not learnt any lessons from the 1997 currency crisis.

- Lim Kit Siang -