MADANI GOVERNMENT FOCUSING ON ECONOMIC ASPECTS, ENCOURAGING INVESTMENT IN 2024 - FAHMI

The main focus of the MADANI Government for 2024 is to accelerate the country's economic growth by giving priority to encouraging both domestic and foreign investors to make investments in Malaysia, Minister of Communications Fahmi Fadzil said.

He said the directive was emphasised by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim during the first Cabinet meeting of the year which was held on 3rd January.

Fahmi said at the meeting, the prime minister also emphasised the need to streamline the functions played by government-linked investment companies (GLICs) which would boost the country's economic growth.

"Among the matters emphasised are facilitating the process and expediting approvals, especially for investments."

"The prime minister also stressed that the approval aspect (of investments) should be prioritised, not relaxed...but expedited," he said at a media briefing at the Ministry of Communications.

Meanwhile, Fahmi said discussions regarding the agencies to be placed under the Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Digital are still ongoing and issues such as Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) have not been decided.

Besides that, he said the current status of the 5G network implementation has not been obtained and the matter would be announced soon.

"However, considering that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) remains under the Ministry of Communication, the secretary-general of the Ministry of Communication and the secretary-general of Treasury will continue to carry out their duties as co-chairs of the 5G task force."

"We expect to achieve 80% 5G coverage in populated areas (CoPA) in the near term, enabling the implementation of dual-network 5G," he added.