M'SIA HAS NO ADB LOANS BUT ITS PRIVATE SECTOR GIVEN ADB CONTRACTS

By Mohd Nasir Yusoff

NUSA DUA (Bali), May 5 (Bernama) - Malaysia has not taken loans from the
Asian Development Bank (ADB) but its interest has been taken care through
contracts given by ADB to its private sector contractors -- which last year
alone amounted to US$200 million worth.

Second Finance Minister, Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, said at the ongoing 42nd ADB
Governors meeting here that he had requested ADB to continue to give
opportunities to Malaysia's private sector companies.

"At the end, for a country, a viable economy comes from one that is driven
by the private sector. Malaysia is also headed in that direction," he told
Bernama here Tuesday.

It was with this in view, Malaysia structured its economy recently by
opening its banking and services sector to up investments in the sectors and to
also enable the shift of its economy to that of value added and service based.

"This will enable the private sector to play a more important role," he
said, adding that he believed the offer of ADB contracts to Malaysian private
sector companies will further enhance activities.

Husni said the government had also allocated a RM10 billion fund to Khazanah
to enable Khazanah to be involved in the strategic fields and to drive local
investments in Malaysia.

More than 2,700 participants representing various Asian countries have been
attending the meeting which started on May 2 and concludes Tuesday.

The ASEAN+3 meeting between the finance ministers of 10 member nations of
the regional grouping and China, South Korea and Japan was also held during the
week.

Husni said the ASEAN+3 meeting had discussed and agreed on the creation of a
special funding facility as a multilateral initiative to help all the countries
involved.

"We discussed and agreed on the Chiengmai Initiative for the establishment
of a fund to enable the countries facing liquidity problem borrow from the
fund," he said.

Husni said all pre-conditions of the initiative were decided and agreed upon
for implementation including in terms of the share of each country in the fund
both in terms of the contribution made and the loan amount that can be taken.

"ASEAN holds 20 percent share of the US$120 billion fund while China, Japan
and South Korea hold 80 percent," he said.

Hopefully, the operation of the fund can start early next year, he added.

China and Japan will contribute US$38.4 billion to the fund, South Korea
US$19.2 billion, while four ASEAN members namely Malaysia, Indonesia,
Singapore and Thailand will each contribute US$4.77 billion and the rest is to
come from the other ASEAN members. (US$1=RM3.56)
-- BERNAMA