ID :
125539
Wed, 06/02/2010 - 08:00
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/125539
The shortlink copeid
GDP NOT ALWAYS ACCURATE MEASURE OF COUNTRY'S WEALTH, SAYS MAHATHIR
KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 (Bernama) -- Gross Domestic Product and per capita income figures do not necessarily reflect a country's wealth, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Tuesday.
"If you have 1000 people of which one is a millionaire and 999 are
unemployed, the average per capita income of this 1000 people is 1000 dollars.
"And you know 999 people are not enjoying that 1000 dollars but that's the
average. That's the problem of averages," he said at a media briefing on the
Perdana Leadership Foundation and the New Club of Paris (NCP) Roundtable and
Public Dialogues on knowledge economy to be held this month.
There needs to be a deeper understanding and "we want to get to the bottom
of things and get out as much as knowledge as possible, to identify steps that
need to be made to ensure our society and economy are more knowledge-based to
achieve developed nation status by 2020," he explained.
It is against this backdrop, that the Perdana Leadership Foundation is
organising a one-day roundtable discussion aimed at bridging the knowledge
divide and to lay the groundwork for the development of a knowledge economy and
society in Malaysia this June 15th.
This will be followed by a public dialogue on June 16th aimed at raising
awareness of the benefits and challenges faced by all stakeholders within the
national innovation ecosystem.
Mahathir will be delivering the keynote address and moderating the
roundtable discussion while Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been
invited to attend the closing session.
Eight international experts along with 20 Malaysian participants from all
sectors has been invited for the two-day event.
"We have a need to acquire knowledge to do a proper analysis of every field-
politic, economy and social, so that we can perhaps reach some idea of what we
need to do to improve the quality of life," Mahathir said.
"We also hope that the recommendations of the roundtable will be used as
input by policymakers in the government and hopefully it will be a meaningful
contribution to the New Economic Model (NEM)," he elaborated.
Asked whether race based affirmative action should be kept in the NEM,
he said racial differences could not be eliminated but economic differences
could be and that the NEP was designed to do that.
--BERNAMA
"If you have 1000 people of which one is a millionaire and 999 are
unemployed, the average per capita income of this 1000 people is 1000 dollars.
"And you know 999 people are not enjoying that 1000 dollars but that's the
average. That's the problem of averages," he said at a media briefing on the
Perdana Leadership Foundation and the New Club of Paris (NCP) Roundtable and
Public Dialogues on knowledge economy to be held this month.
There needs to be a deeper understanding and "we want to get to the bottom
of things and get out as much as knowledge as possible, to identify steps that
need to be made to ensure our society and economy are more knowledge-based to
achieve developed nation status by 2020," he explained.
It is against this backdrop, that the Perdana Leadership Foundation is
organising a one-day roundtable discussion aimed at bridging the knowledge
divide and to lay the groundwork for the development of a knowledge economy and
society in Malaysia this June 15th.
This will be followed by a public dialogue on June 16th aimed at raising
awareness of the benefits and challenges faced by all stakeholders within the
national innovation ecosystem.
Mahathir will be delivering the keynote address and moderating the
roundtable discussion while Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been
invited to attend the closing session.
Eight international experts along with 20 Malaysian participants from all
sectors has been invited for the two-day event.
"We have a need to acquire knowledge to do a proper analysis of every field-
politic, economy and social, so that we can perhaps reach some idea of what we
need to do to improve the quality of life," Mahathir said.
"We also hope that the recommendations of the roundtable will be used as
input by policymakers in the government and hopefully it will be a meaningful
contribution to the New Economic Model (NEM)," he elaborated.
Asked whether race based affirmative action should be kept in the NEM,
he said racial differences could not be eliminated but economic differences
could be and that the NEP was designed to do that.
--BERNAMA
