MORE MEASURES WILL BE ANNOUNCED TO TACKLE ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN, SAYS MINISTER

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 (Bernama) -- More measures will be announced in the
coming weeks to cushion the impact of the current economic slowdown,
International Trade and Industry Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Friday.

Muhyiddin said the measures announced today were more concerning trade and
investment while various industry sub-sectors would have a different impact due
to the global economic downturn.

"It is not going to be yet a total solution to the problem. We need to take
steps as and when we see fit. These (the measures) are only a portion of it," he
said at a press conference after announcing pre-emptive measures to cushion the
impact of the global economic slowdown on the trade and industry sector.

Muhyiddin said a special task force chaired by ministry's secretary-general
had been set up to engage with all the trade and business associations to get
instant feedback regularly.

"When and if they do face certain problems as regard to business, they need
to submit them to us as soon as possible so that these can be tackled within the
shortest possible time. This is to assist the companies and industries concerned
to deal with very difficult situations," he said.

"It is preempting what needs to be done. It is better to do this rather
than wait for things to happen as at a later stage, it may be hopeless," he
added.

Asked whether the measures announced were for a temporary period, the
minister said: "They will be there as long as we feel it is necessary."

He said measures announced Friday were not under the RM7 billion stimulus
package announced on Nov 4 by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also the
Finance Minister.

Asked how severely affected was the industry by the slowdown, Muhyiddin
said that the ministry received a report that the iron and steel industry had
recorded a 60 percent decline in export.

"It is already happening now. That is only one sub-sector. We are going to
monitor closely the other sub-sectors. They will report to us regularly which
means to say we talk about things that are happening," he said.

"There are obviously some recommendation submitted by the industries
concerned for us to look at. We will assist them," he added.

According to Muhyiddin, there has been no cancellation or delay in projects
by investors so far.

"In fact, we will be announcing new projects in due time. The investors
have planned earlier and they will proceed. So far, there has been no
information about stoppage of those projects," he said.

On the retrenchment of workers due to the economic slowdown, Muhyiddin said
there would be some every year but this was due to how the business was
done.

"We are monitoring whether the cases of retrenchment are due to downsizing
or mismanagement, which normally happened even during good times," he
said.

Muhyiddin also said that the Cabinet Committee on Services had been formed
to look at how the government would move forward on liberalisation of the
sectors which were ready to be liberalised.

"I cannot announce what are the sectors. It will be announced in due time.
I hope by the next week," he said.