'Don't deny fund from federal govt', PM tells Opposition
ROSHILA MURNI ROSLI
KUBANG PASU - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim reminded the state governments, especially those under the opposition, not to deny the contributions and funds given by the Federal Government to help with state developments.
Anwar said that as Finance Minister, he has never ignored the roles played by the leaders of the states; however, most investment decisions were made with the support of the Federal Government.
He said it would be better if the state administration could work with the Federal Government to allow more developments to be brought to the states in the future.
"If the state government is in the same direction as the Federal government, it would be easier, not to mention if the leader is polite and smart, maintaining good relationships would be helpful," he said at a programme at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) here on Saturday.
He said, for example, that almost the entire investment in the Kulim Hi-Tech Park in Kedah was assisted by the Federal Government.
"If we want to say the state government was successful, Kulim Hi-Tech was funded by federal government funds. I don’t deny the role of the state government, but funds and investments were mostly from the Federal Government," he said.
He said that as the prime minister, he has suggested that investment be carried out in Kelantan and Terengganu to generate wind energy that could be exported to Singapore.
"Terengganu has improved, but from the lowest threshold value because the state is one of the poorest in the Peninsular, if the economy increases by four per cent and Selangor increases by one per cent, Selangor’s value would be higher.
"We must understand that the highest sector was oil and gas. What is the sector? It is under Petronas. What’s Petronas under? The prime minister "I told the Terengganu Menteri Besar (Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar) that recently I went to China and a petrochemical company wanted to invest in Johor. I said we must view Terengganu as well as it has the potential," he said.
