Mahfuz: Why hire foreign experts to chart 10MP?
(Free Malaysia Today) – Rumours that three consulting firms — Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co and Ethos Consulting — were responsible in structuring the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), has left Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar wondering what the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) was doing.
“What was in the original 10MP plan that it needed restructuring and why are these foreign consultants involved in it and not the EPU or the government itself?” he asked during the debate on the 10 MP in Parliament yesterday.
According to him, the question was pertinent as it was obvious that the three consultancies had given their input.
“I want Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to explain the role and status of the EPU in determining the management of the national economy because the 10MP book us the impression that the EPU was merely a publisher. It appears as if the inputs came from the consultancies,” he said.
Mahfuz, who is also PAS deputy president, said if claims that the three consultancies were involved in formulating the 10MP were true, then it meant that the government had lost faith in its own economists and analysts.
He also said the 10MP had nothing new and “was just flavoured”.
“There is nothing new in the 10MP. It’s the same cook using the same ingredients,” he added.
He instead suggested that Najib embark on a radical plan to transform the economy from being a user to an exporter of technology.
“We should be having our own brands, our own Samsung, our own NEC and our own Sony because the NKEA (National Key Economic Area) also focuses on the electrical and electronic sectors.
‘But if you look at the 10MP, there is no explanation whatsoever as to how we are to turn Malaysia into a exporter of technology,” he said.
