PUTRAJAYA, Jan 17 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today said he is not interested in leaving behind any tall buildings in Malaysia as a legacy.
Instead, he said his focus is on creating strong and sustainable policies and to ensure the government is prudent with its spending to help Malaysians and small businesses do better in a challenging economic environment.
“I feel there are enough landmarks in Kuala Lumpur like the Twin Towers, KLX and Telekom Tower.
“Under the Anwar administration, I have no wish to add to these landmarks and I am not planning to compete with them.
“My only focus is on ensuring our policies are sound, the people's needs are taken care of and we must focus on natural disasters, which are a by-product of global climate change.
“By doing these things and more, we can bring back investors’ confidence in Malaysia,” he said during a Budget 2023 dialogue at the Finance Ministry here.
The dialogue was to discuss the government’s Budget that was tabled by the Ismail Sabri administration last October but not debated due to the dissolution of Parliament to make way for the 15th general election in November.
Anwar, who is also finance minister, said he plans to introduce reforms and eradicate systemic corruption and cronyism in the government agencies.
He said more emphasis should be placed on helping small and medium enterprises and traders while ensuring they maintain proper hygiene in business.
“It's a real effort to change the orientation and priorities to ensure the vast majority of our citizens benefit from these policies.
“As an example, in the two months since I took office I have easily saved RM4 billion, money spent by other politicians through various procurement deals. These deals are not good for the country and are corrupt.
“I saw a request for an organic farm in Kuala Lumpur, which is a great idea for our economy, but it took two years to approve.
“This nonsense must stop,” he said.
Anwar is having a dialogue session with stakeholders to discuss Budget 2023 which was approved but not debated under former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob's regime.
Anwar said he will table a new mini Budget 2023 next month.
