Najib: Have more free trade

What say you on the issue below?

SINGAPORE: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the best way for nations to attain sustainable economic growth was by having more free trade and new economic policies.

He said Malaysia and others could not rely on the old paradigm of “manufacturing in the East and consuming in the West.”

Positive growth: World Bank President Robert Zoellick (right) shaking hands with Najib at the Apec CEO Summit in Singapore yesterday while International Chamber of Commerce chairman Dr Victor Fung looks on.

“That is why we are coming up with a new model based on innovation, high value and searching for new sources of growth, strengthening domestic demand and long-term growth with greater integration with other economies.

“Hopefully with this short and medium-term measures, we will be back on track,’’ he said during a panel discussion titled “Is the Global Economic Crisis Over?” at the Apec CEO Summit here yesterday.

Najib, who is also the Finance Minister, outlined four other initiatives to achieving sustainable growth which included rejecting protectionism, completing the Doha Development Round by next year, ensuring no premature withdrawal of physical incentives or packages until there was real recovery in the private sector and coming up with a new global financial architecture.

“There should be a reform in the global financial architecture with better regulatory and supervision mechanism,’’ he added.

Najib said there were two major issues that needed to be looked at – being sustainable and whether growth could be at the same level before the crisis.

He said countries with large domestic markets like China, India and Indonesia would do well next year and beyond that, adding that for countries “plugged into the global market” like Malaysia and Singapore, things would be different from the advanced economies in the West.

To a question from a delegate whether the stimulus packages injected into the Malaysian economy would work, he smiled and quipped: “It better work, otherwise you will not see me here!”.

Najib said the two packages comprising 9% of the country’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was one of the highest stimulus packages in the world.

“Since we announced it, the numbers have been going up,” he said.

The Government was spending about RM1bil each month since the introduction of the packages, he said, adding that this coupled with the move to liberalise the 27 services sub-sectors, financial sector and also easing Foreign Investment Committee (FIC) guidelines on bumiputra equity has created a resonance both domestically and externally.

Najib stressed that the Apec Summit was the best place for leaders to make a strong political statement to resist protectionism.

“I have said this privately and am now saying it publicly that I liked former President George W. Bush’s policy of free trade,” he said, hoping that this message would be repeated here, referring to President Barack Obama.