KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 – The Malaysian economy is nowadays far more robust, resilient and able to handle any challenge than when the financial crisis in 1997/1998. This, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the results of the implementation of various reform measures taken by the government.
“Over 15 years ago, we implemented various structural reform measures that are important in the financial and banking system,” he said in his keynote address at the World Capital Markets Symposium here Thursday. Among the reform measures included the introduction of a regulatory framework and benchmarks for tighter control regime, strengthening prudential regulations for participants and instigators of corporate governance reforms were widespread.
As a result, the success of reform measures included the emergence currency bond markets in Asia’s third largest with a value of RM1.1 trillion. According to Najib, the bond market will also help reduce the country for short-term loans using foreign currency as it did in the crisis of 1997-1998. In addition, the equity market has also grown to RM1.5 trillion this year from RM175 billion in 1998, with corporate balance sheets are much stronger and public company governed by good, he said.
“The purchase represents more than institutions led by domestic institutional investors in Malaysia, also serves as a source of long-term funds for the capital market. Meanwhile, he mediators managed to meet prudential standards, compliance and risk management that are high in the stock broking industry is operating at the level of the debt is 0.1 times as compared to as high as 1.3 times in 1998,” said Najib, who is also Finance Minister.
“Structural reform has strengthened the ability of the financial system to weather the volatility of volatility and perform adjustments with regularly. During the recent global financial crisis, for example, capital markets and our banking system continues to function without being affected, without experiencing any disruption or failure. The resilience of the financial system will meet the country’s main function as a key enabler for economic development,” he said.
“By serving as a source of long-term financing to complement the banking system, the Malaysian capital market has provided RM376 billion through initial public offerings and bond issues since 2012. This has resulted in capital formation and employment in sectors such as infrastructure, telecommunications and agriculture to gross fixed capital formation between 26 and 27 percent of gross domestic product for the same period,” he said.
However, the Prime Minister stressed the need for policy makers to remain on track in providing better liberalization and openness to the international community. He said that they should remember that the long-term benefits of integration into the global economy, Malaysia is far more important than short-term disruption.
Najib also expressed confidence in the ability of the Special Committee on Economic newly formed in formulating an action plan with immediate and medium term to strengthen the economic position of Malaysia. He said he believe that the accumulated wisdom and experience of the committee will ensure our economy remains on track to achieve. He said that with all the efforts undertaken so far, Malaysia is doing well on track to becoming a developed nation by 2020.
Regarding the ASEAN Economic Community, the prime minister said regional integration efforts are in line with the private sector is increasingly active role in opening the vast opportunities the region has to offer. He added that the integration of the financial sector, in particular, showed good progress, as we can see from the presence of the service provider’s financial sector with a strong regional position.
The two-day symposium entitled “Market and Technology: The Future of Driving Growth through Innovation” it is a platform to promote informed discussion on the capital market with global thought leaders, policy makers, influential groups in decision-making, domain experts and business leaders and market.
