KUALA LUMPUR – Food security issues including high import bills are among the topics of emphasis in the revised Budget 2023, according to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The budget also focuses on efforts to empower the roles of big companies and the small and medium industry (SMI) in the country, he said.
“They (the big companies and the SMI) need to focus on and be given chances to explore new technologies and digitalisation so as to be more competitive and create more job opportunities,” he said at the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia’s (ACCCIM) Chinese New Year Open House here today.
Present were DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke and ACCCIM president Tan Sri Low Kian Chuan.
Elaborating, Anwar, who is also finance minister, said the government would also look into environmental issues, as well as the possibility of introducing clearer and fresher economic policies that will be beneficial to all.
“Looking at the current post-Covid-19 situation, the economic recession in Europe, the impact of the Ukraine-Russia war, it all demands us to be bolder in introducing policies that can benefit us all,” he said.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said all suggestions from stakeholders, including ACCCIM, will be taken into consideration before the tabling of the revised budget.
“The memorandum received from ACCCIM alone was quite thick, so many issues raised in there, but it really helped us. Even during the recent dialogue, we have taken note of several suggestions and Insya-Allah, all those will be addressed in the 2023 budget,” he said.
Anwar is scheduled to table the budget in Parliament on February 24. – Bernama, January 28, 2023
