Economic Affairs Minister, Rafizi Ramli, compared the task of fixing Malaysia’s economy to that of an overweight person trying to lose weight. He stated that while the government knows what needs to be done to improve the economic situation, implementing these changes is the biggest challenge.
“It’s like an overweight person. You know your ideal weight and you constantly remind yourself that you’re getting worse,” he said at a forum titled “Resetting the Malaysian Economy” organized by Parliament.
Rafizi believes that several measures must be taken in order to ensure the economy remains stable and growing. These include rationalizing subsidies, managing the public’s expectations on prices, and broadening the country’s revenue stream.
He noted that subsidies have taken up a significant portion of the government’s operating budget and this will only make the fiscal position “thinner.”
To address this, the government must start rationalizing subsidies and managing the public’s expectations on prices instead of getting addicted to keeping prices “artificially low.”
“The first few steps are the hardest. Once we get the cogs moving, we will feel different about the economic situation in the next two to three years,” he said.
Also taking part in the panel discussion were former Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam and Dewan Negara President Rais Yatim.
