News in Brief

Slower growth forecast this year

Malaysia is projected to achieve a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of about 2.5% to 3.5% this year compared with a forecast 5.5% GDP growth in 2008, The Star Newspaper said.

It quoted Singapore-based Centennial Group Asia director Manu Bhaskaran, as saying that  due to Malaysia’s high exposure to world economy, government spending would only partially offset the effects of the global slowdown.

“Malaysia may narrowly avoid recession this year,” he said at a economic talk before the launch of the Hong Leong Platinum Business credit card.

Additional new stimulus package in store

The government has another stimulus package in store in addition to the RM7bil package announced in November, reported the Star.

“The Prime Minister has given the directive to begin preparing another package,” Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said in a television interview.

“We have the capacity to lend some more due to the fact that we have managed to reduce the budget deficit from 5.5% of GDP in 2000 to 3.2% in 2007,” he added.

Nor Mohamed reiterated that projects under the RM7bil stimulus package would be under way at the various ministries within the first quarter of this year.

CIMB  to disburse loan worth RM6.8b

In this time of financial crisis you need loans and CIMB Bank Bhd may be able to help you. It is expected to disburse about RM6.8bil in business loans this year, similar to the amount in 2008, reported The Star.

Executive vice-president, head of business banking division, Tan Leng Hock said while only some businesses or industries were affected by the downturn, others might require more funding during such times.

“These include small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the infrastructure, food and service-related businesses,’’ Tan said at the one-day seminar on “Enhancing SME Awareness and Access to Financing,” organised by the CIMB Group and attended by 200 SMEs in Johor.

Toll charges likely to go up in the coming years

Major highway operators in the country are expected to increase their toll charges either by 2011 or 2012, said The Star.

PLUS, which operates the North-South Expressway (NSE), Kesas, Sprint and SecondLink in Johor are all expected to increase toll rates under their concessionnaire agreements, the newspaper said.

Under a supplementary agreement signed on April 29, 2004, toll on the New Pantai Expressway (NPE) is scheduled to be raised from RM1.60 to RM2 this year.

IRB Schedule On Monthly Deductions Available Now

The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) said that the new schedule of monthly deductions was available for use by employers, said wire agency Bernama.

In a statement issued here, IRB Public Relations officer Najlah Ishak said the new schedule took into account the change in individual tax rate as announced in Budget 2009 and was applicable to 2009 remunerations.

Tax deductions made for previous years' remunerations of employees paid in 2009 must be based on the new schedule, she added.

Khazanah & firms to  pump in RM58b investment.

Khazanah Nasional Bhd and its majority-held companies will invest RM58 billion in Malaysia over the three-year period between 2009 and 2011, its chief said, the Business Times reported.

About 20 per cent of this will be invested in Johor's Iskandar Malaysia, while the rest will go towards high-speed broadband, power and healthcare projects, among others, managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar said.

The sum is more than the RM36 billion that the companies spent from 2004 to 2008.

"Our key focus in 2009 and the medium term will be on domestic investments with high economic and job creation multipliers," Azman told reporters at a briefing.

Ministsry: Layoffs mainly from electronics sector

Most of the 45,000 factory workers facing temporary layoff during the Chinese New Year festive season are from electronics factories in Penang, Selangor and Johor, Human Resources Minister Datuk S.Subramaniam said.
 
He was quoted by The Star newspaper as saying that the sector that is facing major problems now is the manufacturing sector, “particularly in the electronics field where international demand for their products has fallen”.

"These factories are affected by reduced production, so they are trying to address this issue by having a prolonged shutdown during this holiday season and having a temporary layoff of their staff. After the season is over, they will be brought back into employment again," he said

Ministry to stop hiring foreigners

The Human Resources Ministry is pushing for a temporary freeze on the hiring of foreign workers, The News Starits Times said.

Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said a letter would be sent to the Home Ministry in view of the high retrenchment of workers following the global economic recession.

"We want industries to stop recruiting foreign workers and offer jobs to Malaysians instead."

Dr Subramaniam will meet Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar soon to discuss the matter.

The cabinet had recently approved a special allocation of RM100 million for the Retrenchment Fund to retrain retrenched workers and another RM70 million to facilitate employment of retrenched employees and graduates seeking jobs.
Two special committees have been set up to manage the funds.

10,000 jobless so far since Jan 1

More than 10,000 Malaysians have lost their jobs since Jan 1, according to Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan, the Star newspaper reported.

He said more were expected to lose their jobs in the days ahead as companies, particularly in the manufacturing sector, struggled to stay afloat.

In an urgent appeal to the Government, he said it was of utmost importance for the second economic stimulus package to be released fast so that companies could know clearly where they stood.