KUALA LUMPUR : Teresa Kok ( Seputeh-DAP) today praised Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Mustapa Mohamad for being present in the Dewan Rakyat listening to debates, unlike Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“I praise the MITI Minister for being here until 1am unlike the prime minister who does not dare to be present in Dewan to even pass his own budget,” said Kok, debating Budget 2017 allocations for the ministry.
She also lamented the budget cuts imposed on the various agencies under the ministry.
“Malaysian Industrial Development Authority, Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) and a few others are marketing departments.
“MITI markets Malaysia. How are they suppose to work with lesser budget.
Mida budget has been cut 19% and SME Corp 15%.
“Economy is bad why reduce budget for public universities up to 30%. How to develop human capital?”
She also highlighted the drop in Malaysia’s ranking in the Global Competitiveness Report that saw Malaysia drop from number 18 with 5.23 score to 25 with 5.16 score
She also urged for the participation of federal government in planning industrial parks.
“The infrastructure industrial park not up-to-date. In China and Germany, planning is done includes federal govt. Here it is done by private sector but there is no maintenance.”
She also highlighted the problems of graduates not meeting market demands.
Companies say it’s not they don’t want to hire local grads but the command of English among local grads is not up to par she added.
“Is it possible for universities to discuss what is needed?”
She also took the government to task over Rafizi Ramli ( Pandan-PKR) who was sentenced to 18 months.
“(Red Shirts) Jamal is creating problem but there are no action. Rafizi gets punished for OSA offence. Even MPs can’t speak up.
“This development would rattle investor confidence,” she said.