GOVT WANTS GLCs TO FOCUS ON CERTAIN INDUSTRIES

IPOH (Perak, Malaysia), Dec 13 (Bernama) -- All government-linked companies
(GLCs) have been asked to reduce their shareholdings with Bursa Malaysia (BM)
and focus on increasing their investments in the manufacturing, information
technology and services industries.

Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said the government wanted the
GLCs to focus on the real economy and make way for the private sector and
community to invest in BM.

"The government is aware of the small size of BM and the GLCs' large
shareholding in BM causes the lack of liquidity as they have enough funds to
hold the shares.

"We wish for more private sector participation as they want to make quick gains
compared with the GLCs," he said after performing the ground-breaking ceremony
for a Tamil primary school, here, Sunday.

Ahmad Husni said the government's move to ask GLCs to steer away from financial
system-based business to the real economy was to ensure smooth economic
transformation and implementation of the New Economic Model.

The minister said the government had set the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
for GLCs and to achieve this, they needed to play their role in the strategic
sectors to attract direct involvement of the private sector in economic
transformation.

The GLCs needed to generate profits from their operations and not lose money,
causing the government to bear the losses, he said.

"We target to receive investments amounting to RM1.3 trillion (US$415.203
billion) from next year until 2020 and out of this, 92 per cent will be from the
private sector and the rest will come from the government, which sets the policy
and direction."

Ahmad Husni said aquaculture, for instance, had the huge potential of giving
lucrative returns, hence the GLCs should be involved in this field.
-- BERNAMA