Sunday December 16, 2007
Future bright for the Chinese
By NG CHENG YEE
KUALA LUMPUR: The Chinese community must remain positive and continue to contribute to the growth of the national economy, MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said.
Calling on the community to employ the “right strategies”, he said the country’s economic growth was still very much dependant on their contributions.
“We should not be affected by some negative remarks because we enjoy a very important position in mainstream economic development,” he told reporters after opening the “Globalising Malaysia: Economic Potential for Malaysian Youths” seminar here yesterday.
Ong, who is Housing and Local Government Minister, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and other Barisan leaders had assured the Cabinet and other channels that what belonged to the Chinese community would not be taken away and given to others.
“The various policies that the Government has implemented to help bumiputras are meant to expand the economic cake and create new opportunities and wealth,” he explained.
Reiterating that the MCA would continue to voice the views of the community at the decision-making level, Ong said the party would also liase with the Malaysian Chinese Economic Consultative Council (MCECC) on matters of interest.
He said the party wanted to focus on the country’s economic development, the opportunities given to the Chinese and the results of their participation.
“We are confident that the future is bright for the community.
“The Chinese should be more concerned about globalisation now as it will provide them more opportunities all over the world,” he said.
Ong said 99.2% of the Malaysian corporate sector was made up of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which were mostly Chinese-owned, adding that these people had been doing business even before the country’s independence.
As such, he said there was a high percentage of Chinese securing SME loans, adding that as of Dec 31 last year, RM112.8bil in SME loans had been approved by both commercial banks and government financial institutions.
“Of this, 80.8% or RM91.1bil was given to non-bumiputras,” he said.
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