Malaysia – Ex-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak suggested this night that state oil firm Petronas might buy troubled oil-and-gas operator Sapura Energy Bhd to save the company without costing taxpayers any money. Najib claimed that Sapura’s failure would be devastating to Malaysia’s economy in a live discussion with political adversary Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and the company’s market capitalization …

Malaysia – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that the government is dedicated to boosting the participation of Bumiputera firms in large-scale national projects. He also said that the government is dedicated to revising procurement procedures enforced by government-linked businesses (GLCs) and government-linked investment companies (GLICs), as well as concerns with Bumiputera company equity, which remains considerably below …

Malaysia – The government will continue to improve poverty measurement methods to ensure the effectiveness of poverty eradication initiatives, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said. In his 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) winding-up debate at Parliament today, he said the government already has the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) that covered four dimensions and 11 indicators. …

The government should concentrate on improving the performance of Bumiputera-led institutions, said Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar said that before contemplating new and alternative affirmative action measures, improvements should be made to current organizations that serve the majority population. According to him, the current sector must be boosted while avoiding additional racial tensions and ambiguity for Malays and …