MALAYSIA HAS ENOUGH STRENGTH TO FACE GLOBAL ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN

By Kenny Teng Khoon Hock & Tajul Safuan

GEORGETOWN (Penang, Malaysia), Aug 20 (Bernama) -- Despite the global
economic uncertainties, the Malaysian government is confident that the country
has enough domestic strength to overcome the impact, said Minister in the Prime
Minister's Department Nor Mohamed Yakcop.

Nor Mohamed, who heads the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), said while it was
natural that Malaysia will be affected by the slowdown in the global economy, it
will not be the first time that the country would be facing such a situation.

"Our leadership have faced such situation many times since independence.

"In the 2008 economic crisis, we not only managed to overcome the situation
but we bounced back to be in the strongest position to move forward when the
economic recovered," he said.

He also believed that while the country will be affected by the global
slowdown, it would still be able to achieve a GDP growth of five to six per cent
this year.

Meanwhile in Ipoh, Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah also said
that Malaysia would be able to improve its GDP growth in the second half of this
year supported by a better output from the petroleum sector.

There is a need to achieve a 5.5 per cent growth in the second half for
Malaysia to achieve its target this year, he said, adding that factors affecting
the Petroleum sector's growth would be overcome during the period.

He said this to reporters after attending a religious programme organised by
the Tambun Parliament constituency's Women and Family Development Council, in
Ipoh, the capital of northern Perak state, Saturday.

On the country's development expenditure, Ahmad Husni said the
Implementation Coordination Unit under the Prime Minister's Department had set
up a monitoring system which carries out checks weekly to ensure that all
developments plans are going in order.