The Budget 2018 is seen to have express the sound economic and financial management of the country and at the same time cares for the interests of the rakyat reflected by the targeted incentives and measures and create more high impact programmes.
“We wish to extend our appreciation to the Government for its comprehensive Budget which shows commitment in ensuring the economy continues to expand at a healthy pace and at the same time reduce the fiscal deficit since 2009 while maintaining the Federal Government debt to GDP below the self-imposed limit of 55%,” said Tan Sri Azman Hashim, Chairman, Ambank Group.
“We appreciate the Government’s efforts to ensure the 2018 Budget will be inclusive, responsible and comprehensive towards achieving sustainable economic growth by taking into consideration of the interests of all groups in the country as the citizens of Malaysia.”
“We applaud the Government’s priority to continue focusing on providing quality healthcare services and civil servants. Paddy farmers, farmers, small holders, fishermen and others in the agriculture are also given attention with measures that will help alleviate the decline in income from the weak commodity prices,” he added.
Azman notes that the 2018 Budget focus on empowering human capital which is a critical factor for the future of the nation. Towards this, emphasis is to intensify higher education and strengthen the technical and vocational education. These efforts will help improve the overall efficiency as well as flexibility of the labour market.
“To further strengthen the contribution of the Capital Market, the Budget has introduced several measures such as the exemption of stamp duty which will promote a more active trading for Exchange-Traded Funds and Structured Warrants while the income tax exemption of management fees will incentivize the creation of a wider range of SRI financial products to be offered to the market and the introduction of an Alternative Trading System is expected to allow trading of securities to be time-efficient.”
