KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Putrajaya gave RM15 million to PEMANDU Corp for all its activities and not exclusively for the Global Transformation Forum 2017 (GTF), the organiser told a federal lawmaker.

Responding to Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming's criticism of the allocation and the forum, GTF organising chairman Nishan Veerakumar explained that some of the funds were channelled to the forum as PEMANDU Corp was responsible for financing the event.

Nishan then said Ong was incorrect in assuming that the sum was the entire cost of the event.

“Contrary to what Dr OKM assumes, I wish to point out that there are three key revenue streams, which are government sponsorship, corporate sponsorships and ticket sales.

“Since corporate sponsorship is proportionately lower for GTF 2017 compared to 2015, it meant that both government sponsorship and ticket sales had to make for the difference,” he said in a statement.

The higher cost of the 2017 event versus the 2015 edition was because the GTF had increased in scale and stature, he added.

Nishan said the GTF was benchmarked against the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos and Nordic Business Forum in Helsinki.

Speakers at this year's event include Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba Group; Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group; multiple Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt; former Formula 1 racer David Coulthard; and more.

“Hence, we brought in more prominent and iconic speakers from around the world, used a bigger conference venue to create the experience for the delegates, extensive international marketing and sales campaign,” he said.

The GTF organiser also rejected Ong's claim that the forum was “elitist” due to its ticket pricing, saying the RM4,000 to RM10,000 tickets were good value when compared to the US$40,000 average price to attend the WEF.

He then said the organisers will provide material from the forum, such as video clippings of the speakers, free of charge to the public. Students and select members of the public had also been admitted  on a discretionary basis.

Tickets were priced in that manner as these were needed to pay for part of the forum's cost in order to avoid shifting the burden entirely to the government, he added.

“I suspect if the government were to underwrite the whole cost, I am sure that Dr OKM will criticise GTF for being too expensive. He would have again argued it is waste of government funds,” he said.

He concluded by suggesting that Ong was using the event as political fodder and negatively viewed any activity involving the government.

Ong last month questioned why the federal government allocated RM15 million to the event, based on a written parliamentary reply from the prime minister.

He also criticised the 50 per cent increase in allocation from a similar programme organised in 2010.

The federal lawmaker also asked why the organiser should receive federal funding for the event when it was also collecting entrance fees that range from RM4,000 to RM10,000 per person.