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| Globalization has reached a turning point By Zhang Yansheng | China Daily | Updated: 2018-09-29 06:58 Ten years since the global financial crisis, the world economy seems to be moving toward stabilization, but the risks, rather than declining, have increased significantly. Thanks to the active economic measures it took in response to the global financial crisis, China has achieved considerable results in the decade since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In 2008, China and the United States accounted for 7.2 percent and 23.1 percent of the world's GDP, respectively. By 2017, China's share in the world economy had jumped 7.8 percentage points to 15 percent while that of the US increased 1.2 percentage points to 24.3 percent. The world economy seems to have emerged from the crisis to move toward a period of stability. According to the International Monetary Fund, the global economic growth rate in 2017 was likely to be 3.7 percent, close to the 3.74 percent long-term equilibrium global growth rate from 1990 to 2007. More important, the world economy is expected to grow by 3.9 percent this year and in the subsequent years. A key fact that cannot be ignored is that in the past 10 years, China has contributed substantially to the world economic recovery. For example, even though its GDP accounted for only 8.5 percent of the world total in 2009, it contributed as much as 50 percent to global economic growth. On average, the Chinese economy has contributed to more than 30 percent of global growth in the past decade … for more, go to http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201809/29/WS5baeb230a310eff303280217.html |
Blame BN until kingdom come for Malaysia’s economic woes but start worrying about the future!
Measures must be implemented to check and prevent any serious loss in investors’ confidence, both domestic and foreign.
The government cannot just sit and wait for the problem to go away as it will not. The socio-economic woes of Malaysians and Malaysia will worsen if nothing is done to address the erratic domestic and global economy.
Yes. Almost every Malaysian, save for the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) boot lickers, know why Malaysia’s federal debt is more than RM1 trillion today.
The government can continue to blame the previous BN federal government until kingdom come but it is not going to cushion the impact of a global economic pressures that will surely inflict domestic economic activities negatively.
Enough of blaming BN. Blame BN until the cows come home, if you so wish, but act swiftly without fear or favour to bring the culprits who have abused and stole from the people and recover the loot from them.
But, it is surely time for the PH government to display political will to implement drastic fiscal and economic policies, irrespective of race and religion, to set Malaysia on a path of aggressive socio-economic recovery.
And just blaming BN and cancelling projects that can bring about billions, if not trillions, of trade activities is surely unwise.
For example, the cancellation of Belt Road Initiative (BRI)-linked East Coast Rail Link (ECRL)? Cancellation is no solution.The solution is to bring the BN-inflated construction costs down to a reasonable level and carry on with the project.
The cancellation of the ECRL has wiped out the direct trade potential for Malaysia with more than 90 countries and international organisations.
With the worsening US-China trade war rocking the global economy order, Malaysia badly needs socio-economic decisions and fiscal policies that gain investors’ confidence, not shake them.
Read on for more details:
"Malaysia slips 14 spots in Economic Freedom ranking
FMT Reporters
September 25, 2018 5:33 PM
IDEAS chief executive Ali Salman says ranking shows how the private sector had been ‘squeezed’, businesses obstructed and size of government increased. (Facebook pic)
PETALING JAYA: A think tank has voiced concern over Malaysia’s “sharp decline” in the Economic Freedom of the World 2018 ranking, and called for a comprehensive review of economic policies under the new government.
In a statement, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) commented on Malaysia’s drop in the ranking from 65 to 79 this year out of 162 countries, covered in the annual report released by Canada’s Fraser Institute.
IDEAS chief executive Ali Salman said although the ranking was based on 2016-2017 data, the ranking showed how the private sector had been “squeezed”, businesses obstructed and size of the government increased.
“This calls for a comprehensive review of economic policies under the Pakatan Harapan administration spanning critical areas like government-linked company (GLC) reforms, size of the civil service and business regulations.”
Ali noted Malaysia’s scores in terms of economic freedom went down in terms of the size of the government and freedom to trade internationally.
Hong Kong and Singapore were at the top of the ranking, which measures economic freedom such as levels of personal choice, ability to enter markets, security of privately-owned properties, rule of law and more.
The 10 lowest-ranked countries are Sudan, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Syria, Algeria, Argentina, Libya and Venezuela (last place).
Ali noted that research has shown that people who live in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy greater prosperity, more political and civil liberties, and longer lives.
“For example, countries in the top 25%, like the UK, Japan and Ireland, had an average per-capita income of US$40,376 in 2016 compared with US$5,649 for the bottom 25%, such as Venezuela, Iran and Zimbabwe.”
Malaysia’s Canceled Belt and Road Initiative Projects and the Implications for China
Malaysia–China relations are poised to remain friendly and may even offer China an opportunity to reassess how BRI projects are evaluated and implemented. - FMT
By Blake H. Berger
August 27, 2018
The circumstances around Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s first trip to China following his re-election were far from auspicious as allegations of corruption and fiscal mismanagement plagued several Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects. Following the five-day visit, Mahathir announced the cancellation of three BRI projects: the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and two gas pipelines, the Multi-Product Pipeline (MPP) and Trans-Sabah Gas Pipeline (TSGP).
The cancellation of these projects should come as no surprise. Mahathir has continually chastised his predecessor Najib Razak for embarking on these ventures, as he deemed them to be detrimental to the country and its fiscal health. Throughout his campaign, Mahathir pledged to reduce the state’s rising debt levels and the BRI project would only prove to increase such debt.
While scrapping the projects represents a blow to China’s BRI ambitions in Malaysia and the region, the Malaysia–China bilateral relationship will not be adversely affected and instead will provide Beijing with an opportunity to learn valuable lessons and reassess project evaluation and implementation.
In the months leading up to the visit, claims of misappropriation of funds, corruption, and misdeeds have surrounded the three nixed projects. In early July, after mounting concerns that the contract values had appeared to be inflated and $700 million had been diverted to pay off debts connected to 1MDB, the Mahathir administration halted work on the ECRL, which was slated to stretch 430-miles connecting the South China Sea to shipping routes of Straits of Malacca providing an essential trade link for China.
The ECRL was being built by China Communications Construction Co Ltd and mainly financed by a loan from the China Exim Bank. On July 18, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) raided several offices and seized documents in connection of the MPP and TSGP after corruption and mismanagement allegations surfaced. Despite disbursing $2 billion for the two projects, Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng commented that “zero percent of the construction work has been carried out.”
The MPP was a 372-mile multi-product petroleum pipeline connecting Melaka and Port Dickson to Jitra in Kedah State, and the TSGP was a 411-mile gas pipeline stretching from the Kimanis Gas Terminal to Sandakan and Tawau, both were being constructed by a subsidiary of China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau.
With the government estimating that Malaysia’s national debt at roughly $252 billion and approximately 65 percent of gross domestic product, it is not shocking that the three projects totaling $23 billion were scrapped. Instead of holding Beijing accountable and as a corollary seeking to maintain cordial relations, Mahathir laid the blame on his predecessor Najib.
During a business forum in Beijing, Mahathir excoriated Najib saying, “It is not about the Chinese, it is about the Malaysian government. They borrowed huge sums of money and now we have problems trying to repay the money that they have owed…That is Malaysians playing around with money, not even doing proper feasibility studies and due diligence before going into business.”
By placing the blame on Najib, Mahathir was able to not only avoid straining bilateral relations and get Beijing to agree to cancel the projects albeit with penalties to be figured out, but shifted the narrative away from the dominant BRI debt trap account to one which portrayed the situation as ‘Najib’s debt’.
The cancellation of the railway and two energy pipelines certainly undercuts Beijing’s BRI ambitions in Malaysia. Furthermore, the halted projects will cause other nations in the region, such as Myanmar and Indonesia, who are both seeking to renegotiate BRI-backed projects, to take heed.
That said, Malaysia–China relations are poised to remain friendly and may even offer China an opportunity to reassess how BRI projects are evaluated and implemented. In Malaysia, China still maintains several BRI projects, including the Kuantan deep-water port and industrial park, the Melaka Gateway project, and the Forest City in Johor, all of which could still continue to some degree.
With China as Malaysia’s top trading partner, ensuring cordial relations was a top priority during Mahathir’s trip to China. A number of memorandum of understandings were signed, in which China agreed to purchase more palm oil and facilitate the export of durians, and secured a commitment from automaker Geely to start selling Malaysia’s Proton cars in China.
So despite the negative press around the cancelled BRI projects, it is clear that China has an opportunity to learn from the Malaysian case. In progressing forward, Beijing should begin to implement international best-practices in infrastructure development so that it can construct much needed infrastructure in its partner countries which can contribute to their economic development and regional integration.
Blake H. Berger is a foreign policy analyst and Southeast Asia specialist based in New York. - THE DIPLOMAT
Found in WhatsApp circulation:
My friend, my MAS buddy who just returned from official duties in Washington and New York supporting the SGP delegation to the UN General Assembly and IMF meeting, told me the US situation is really chaotic and most Americans are worried and fearful. They can sense that the govt utterances and media are not truthful but they cannot put their finger on the principal causes. All they know the happy talk of Trump and mass media are lies. Things are slowing down and things from foodstuffs, toiletries, other household items are very expensive. When they bumped into friends they exchanged only sad stories and expensive medical charges because most Americans are sickly people. Their other concerns is unemployment and low wages, etc. So they sense things are worsening and life is getting harder each day but what actually is hurting them and depressing the atmosphere is a mystery. The more educated ones can dig into the problems by surfing the internet.
My buddy told me that what is happening in satanic America is that the lies and cover-up are now unraveling in accordance to the law of economics and physics. The enormus debts the country incurred and is still growing are now producing painful effects. These will explode ANY TIME FROM NOW. He said all the banks are bankrupt and account holders are now screwed. They cannot withdraw big sum of money of a few Ks at a time.
My buddy said he and his colleagues have reported back to MAS to expect a financial crisis is inevitable and will happen before the end of 2018. The first to go down will be banks and hedge funds. The bonds market will collapse any moment and this will trigger the stock market collapse. All these must happen because America is not exempted from the law of economics or the law of sciences. This time the destruction will be many time worse than 2008.
He warned me to quickly get out of the digital (crypto) casinos. All these setups are now run by crooks for the cabal Jews whose banking industry is now destroyed and the cryptos are cash grabs for them swipe to make up for lost incomes.
War is on the horizon. The tariff war is a 1st salvo to knuckle China into submission but the clever Chings outsmarted them. At the moment the Chinese are fighting the imperialist on the terms of the reset which will probaly be announced in October '18. Now be advised the yanks will be forced to devalue the USD by 30% to be followed by another 30% in 1st half 2019. The Chinese government, Russian, and BRICS countries are preparing for a formal USD collapse. Already they have all the platform ready to replace swift and launch the gold trade note and gold back yuan and roubles.
The US Interior Secretary has announced they have enough super submarines to blockade Russian, Chinese, Iranian oil entering Europe. Obviously this means war. But commonsense tells us this is a stupid bragging of a desperado.
I hope this msg will be helpful for you to prepare for the difficult times ahead. Regards.
Get Outlook for Android"
PETALING JAYA: A think tank has voiced concern over Malaysia’s “sharp decline” in the Economic Freedom of the World 2018 ranking, and called for a comprehensive review of economic policies under the new government.
In a statement, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) commented on Malaysia’s drop in the ranking from 65 to 79 this year out of 162 countries, covered in the annual report released by Canada’s Fraser Institute.
IDEAS chief executive Ali Salman said although the ranking was based on 2016-2017 data, the ranking showed how the private sector had been “squeezed”, businesses obstructed and size of the government increased.
“This calls for a comprehensive review of economic policies under the Pakatan Harapan administration spanning critical areas like government-linked company (GLC) reforms, size of the civil service and business regulations.”
Ali noted Malaysia’s scores in terms of economic freedom went down in terms of the size of the government and freedom to trade internationally.
Hong Kong and Singapore were at the top of the ranking, which measures economic freedom such as levels of personal choice, ability to enter markets, security of privately-owned properties, rule of law and more.
The 10 lowest-ranked countries are Sudan, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Syria, Algeria, Argentina, Libya and Venezuela (last place).
Ali noted that research has shown that people who live in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy greater prosperity, more political and civil liberties, and longer lives.
“For example, countries in the top 25%, like the UK, Japan and Ireland, had an average per-capita income of US$40,376 in 2016 compared with US$5,649 for the bottom 25%, such as Venezuela, Iran and Zimbabwe.”
Malaysia’s Canceled Belt and Road Initiative Projects and the Implications for China
Malaysia–China relations are poised to remain friendly and may even offer China an opportunity to reassess how BRI projects are evaluated and implemented. - FMT
By Blake H. Berger
August 27, 2018
 |
| Image Credit: CC0 image via PXhere |
The cancellation of these projects should come as no surprise. Mahathir has continually chastised his predecessor Najib Razak for embarking on these ventures, as he deemed them to be detrimental to the country and its fiscal health. Throughout his campaign, Mahathir pledged to reduce the state’s rising debt levels and the BRI project would only prove to increase such debt.
While scrapping the projects represents a blow to China’s BRI ambitions in Malaysia and the region, the Malaysia–China bilateral relationship will not be adversely affected and instead will provide Beijing with an opportunity to learn valuable lessons and reassess project evaluation and implementation.
In the months leading up to the visit, claims of misappropriation of funds, corruption, and misdeeds have surrounded the three nixed projects. In early July, after mounting concerns that the contract values had appeared to be inflated and $700 million had been diverted to pay off debts connected to 1MDB, the Mahathir administration halted work on the ECRL, which was slated to stretch 430-miles connecting the South China Sea to shipping routes of Straits of Malacca providing an essential trade link for China.
The ECRL was being built by China Communications Construction Co Ltd and mainly financed by a loan from the China Exim Bank. On July 18, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) raided several offices and seized documents in connection of the MPP and TSGP after corruption and mismanagement allegations surfaced. Despite disbursing $2 billion for the two projects, Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng commented that “zero percent of the construction work has been carried out.”
The MPP was a 372-mile multi-product petroleum pipeline connecting Melaka and Port Dickson to Jitra in Kedah State, and the TSGP was a 411-mile gas pipeline stretching from the Kimanis Gas Terminal to Sandakan and Tawau, both were being constructed by a subsidiary of China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau.
With the government estimating that Malaysia’s national debt at roughly $252 billion and approximately 65 percent of gross domestic product, it is not shocking that the three projects totaling $23 billion were scrapped. Instead of holding Beijing accountable and as a corollary seeking to maintain cordial relations, Mahathir laid the blame on his predecessor Najib.
During a business forum in Beijing, Mahathir excoriated Najib saying, “It is not about the Chinese, it is about the Malaysian government. They borrowed huge sums of money and now we have problems trying to repay the money that they have owed…That is Malaysians playing around with money, not even doing proper feasibility studies and due diligence before going into business.”
By placing the blame on Najib, Mahathir was able to not only avoid straining bilateral relations and get Beijing to agree to cancel the projects albeit with penalties to be figured out, but shifted the narrative away from the dominant BRI debt trap account to one which portrayed the situation as ‘Najib’s debt’.
The cancellation of the railway and two energy pipelines certainly undercuts Beijing’s BRI ambitions in Malaysia. Furthermore, the halted projects will cause other nations in the region, such as Myanmar and Indonesia, who are both seeking to renegotiate BRI-backed projects, to take heed.
That said, Malaysia–China relations are poised to remain friendly and may even offer China an opportunity to reassess how BRI projects are evaluated and implemented. In Malaysia, China still maintains several BRI projects, including the Kuantan deep-water port and industrial park, the Melaka Gateway project, and the Forest City in Johor, all of which could still continue to some degree.
With China as Malaysia’s top trading partner, ensuring cordial relations was a top priority during Mahathir’s trip to China. A number of memorandum of understandings were signed, in which China agreed to purchase more palm oil and facilitate the export of durians, and secured a commitment from automaker Geely to start selling Malaysia’s Proton cars in China.
So despite the negative press around the cancelled BRI projects, it is clear that China has an opportunity to learn from the Malaysian case. In progressing forward, Beijing should begin to implement international best-practices in infrastructure development so that it can construct much needed infrastructure in its partner countries which can contribute to their economic development and regional integration.
Blake H. Berger is a foreign policy analyst and Southeast Asia specialist based in New York. - THE DIPLOMAT
Found in WhatsApp circulation:
My friend, my MAS buddy who just returned from official duties in Washington and New York supporting the SGP delegation to the UN General Assembly and IMF meeting, told me the US situation is really chaotic and most Americans are worried and fearful. They can sense that the govt utterances and media are not truthful but they cannot put their finger on the principal causes. All they know the happy talk of Trump and mass media are lies. Things are slowing down and things from foodstuffs, toiletries, other household items are very expensive. When they bumped into friends they exchanged only sad stories and expensive medical charges because most Americans are sickly people. Their other concerns is unemployment and low wages, etc. So they sense things are worsening and life is getting harder each day but what actually is hurting them and depressing the atmosphere is a mystery. The more educated ones can dig into the problems by surfing the internet.
My buddy told me that what is happening in satanic America is that the lies and cover-up are now unraveling in accordance to the law of economics and physics. The enormus debts the country incurred and is still growing are now producing painful effects. These will explode ANY TIME FROM NOW. He said all the banks are bankrupt and account holders are now screwed. They cannot withdraw big sum of money of a few Ks at a time.
My buddy said he and his colleagues have reported back to MAS to expect a financial crisis is inevitable and will happen before the end of 2018. The first to go down will be banks and hedge funds. The bonds market will collapse any moment and this will trigger the stock market collapse. All these must happen because America is not exempted from the law of economics or the law of sciences. This time the destruction will be many time worse than 2008.
He warned me to quickly get out of the digital (crypto) casinos. All these setups are now run by crooks for the cabal Jews whose banking industry is now destroyed and the cryptos are cash grabs for them swipe to make up for lost incomes.
War is on the horizon. The tariff war is a 1st salvo to knuckle China into submission but the clever Chings outsmarted them. At the moment the Chinese are fighting the imperialist on the terms of the reset which will probaly be announced in October '18. Now be advised the yanks will be forced to devalue the USD by 30% to be followed by another 30% in 1st half 2019. The Chinese government, Russian, and BRICS countries are preparing for a formal USD collapse. Already they have all the platform ready to replace swift and launch the gold trade note and gold back yuan and roubles.
The US Interior Secretary has announced they have enough super submarines to blockade Russian, Chinese, Iranian oil entering Europe. Obviously this means war. But commonsense tells us this is a stupid bragging of a desperado.
I hope this msg will be helpful for you to prepare for the difficult times ahead. Regards.
Get Outlook for Android"
 |
| https://ilovemalaysiachinasilkroad.blogspot.com/2018/07/malaysia-at-bri-global-economic.html |
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