Would Malaysia miss out on the Asian Economic century that has begun now with Chinese companies the biggest in the world and Indians the richest individuals in the world?
___________________
Press Statement
by Lim Guan Eng
________________________
(Petaling Jaya,
Tuesday):
PETROCHINA has stunned the
world by becoming the first
trillion-US-dollar company
and the biggest company in
the world by market
capitalization, far exceeding
ExxonMobil’s US $488 billion.
This follows Petrochina first
trading day, which nearly
tripled the price of its
Initial Public Offering.
Apart from PETROCHINA, five
out of the ten top companies
in the world in terms of
market capitalization are
from China, a remarkable
achievement for a country
that was once the “Economic
Sick Man” of Asia 30 years
ago.
The five Chinese companies in
the top ten are China Life,
China Mobile, the Industrial
and Commercial Bank of China
and Sinopec (China Petroleum
and Chemical), as well as
PetroChina. There are only 3
US companies in the top 10
namely General Electric,
Microsoft and ExxonMobil,
whilst the remaining two top
ten companies are Russia's
Gazprom and Dutch-British
company Royal Dutch Shell.
Two out of the 5 richest men
in the world are Indians. The
latest news reports have
crowned the owner of India’s
Reliance Industries, Mukesh
Ambani as the world richest
man with a wealth of US $63.2
billion followed by:
•
Mexican telecom titan, Carlos
Slim Helu with US $62.2993
billion
• Microsoft William (Bill)
Gates from US with US $62.29
billion
• Legendary investor Warren
Buffett with US $55.9 billion
• Indian steel magnate
Lakshmi Mittal with US $50.9
billion
To
top of this Asian Economic
century, China will surpass
Germany as the third largest
economy in the world with
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
exceeding US$3 trillion by
the end of 2007. China's 2006
GDP was $2.8 trillion while
Germany had $2.9 trillion.
The U.S. remains the world's
biggest economy with a GDP of
$13.2 trillion last year
followed by Japan with $4.4
trillion worth of goods and
service produced. With two
out of the top three
economies in the world from
Asia and two out of the five
richest men in the world also
from Asia, the Asian Economic
century has begun.
This gives rise to one
important question whether
Malaysia would miss out on
the benefits of the Asian
Economic century. At a time
when the UMNO General
Assembly continues to justify
the importance of restraining
human potential of Malaysians
by continuing to impose the
shackles of the New Economic
Policy (NEP), countries such
as China and India are
recording outstanding growth
through merit,
competitiveness, freeing
market forces to improve
productivity and quality.
Malaysia is still relying on
quotas, subsidies and
preferential policies of the
New Economic Policy (NEP)
that has been rejected in the
globalize world as vestiges
of crony capitalism and
corrupt interests that
benefits the privileged few
at the expense of the people.
Privileges entail
responsibility. The harsh
effects of such crony
capitalism would have been
ameliorated if the privileged
few are willing to share
their wealth with the poor.
Unfortunately, wealth from
natural resources,
particularly oil revenue,
continues to be monopolized
by the powerful and wealthy
few until the poor have not
got a single cent despite
record oil prices of US $96
per barrel.
UMNO leaders at the General
Assembly should grow up and
open their eyes to the
changing international
scenario and analyze the
reasons behind the thundering
rise of China and India. The
common basis of success is
certainly not the inefficient
and insufficient subsidies or
discriminatory and
preferential quota policies.
It is the ability to rely on
one’s expertise and skills,
work hard and self-reliance
that is the key to both China
and India’s success. No
matter how many times we
teach a person to swim on
land, the final test is still
whether he or she can swim in
water. By failing to apply
these lessons, UMNO and BN
are doing Malaysia a great
disservice by continuing to
impose quotas based on race
instead of needs and make the
people dependant and reliant
on government aid.
Such discriminatory policies
has resulted in a severe
brain drain where our top
talents are found more in
foreign countries like
Singapore than in Malaysia.
Unfortunately Malaysia would
lose out in this Asian
Economic century so long as
UMNO and BN refuses to take
the necessary step of
abolishing the NEP, attract
the return of talents, remove
the subsidy mentality and
share out the country’s
wealth, especially Petronas’
bulging tens of billions of
ringgit in profits, with
ordinary Malaysians.
(6/11/2007)
* Lim Guan
Eng,
Secretary-General of DAP |