PM Sets Up Special Economic Committee With 10 Financial Movers
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak recently formed a Special Economic Committee (SEC) and appointed 10 prominent individuals to be part of the committee.
SEC will be led by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar. The Economic Planning Unit (EPU) will serve as the secretariat of the SEC, led by Deputy Director General Datuk K Yogeesvaran.
The Special Economic Committee comprises 9 other individuals including:
- Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, Chairman of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd
- Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, Managing director of Khazanah Nasional
- Datuk Abdul Farid Alias, CEO of Maybank and Chairman of Association of Banks in Malaysia
- Tan Sri Andrew Sheng Len Tao, Chief Advisor of China Banking Regulatory Commission
- Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Deputy Chairman of Khazanah Nasional and former second finance minister
- Tan Sri Mohamed Azman Yahya, CEO of Symphony Life Bhd
- Datuk Seri Dr K Govindan, CEO of RAM Holdings Bhd
- Professor Datuk Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali, Vice-chancellor of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
- Datuk Seri Saw Choo Boon, President of Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers
Several other officers from the Finance Ministry, Bank Negara Malaysia, the International Trade and Industry Ministry, the Securities Commission Malaysia and the Prime Minister’s Office would also be included in the committee line-up.
According to a report by Bernama, the SEC will report to the Prime Minister directly, once a week, and he will scrutinise the current issues, such as the Ringgit’s value, the stability of the financial industry and improving confidence in the capital markets.
The SEC will look at short and medium-term strategies to strengthen the country as confidence in the capital markets wanes among global investors. The committee will strive to ensure continued growth, in a bid to boost confidence in the Ringgit and the country’s stocks.
This will be done by formulating strategies to maintain economic growth through domestic and foreign investment, while tackling various economic issues such as narrowing of the fiscal deficit, consolidating public funds, minimising leakages and stabilising the balance of payments.
This new committee is merely a short-term solution, and that it will only be operational until the global economy stabilises.
