Dr Abdul Khalid: Malaysia’s richest 15 families control 76% of Gross Domestic Product

Report by Qiu Wen Fa

Sin Chew Daily, 29 May 2015

(Penang 28 May) Khazanah Research Institute director Dr Muhammad Abdul Khalid says 15 richest families in Malaysia control the asset of the country which is 76% of the country’s gross domestic product.

He said 53% of families in Malaysia do not have any financial asset including savings and investments. There are 63% of such families in rural area while 45% in urban areas.

Muhammad Abdul Khalid reveals the figures in a forum held at Universiti Sains Malaysia today.

The forum themed: “Development and imbalance: can Malaysia achieve high income developed nation by 2020?” Another speaker is Tan Sri Prof Dr Kamal Salih, Adjunct Professor of Economics and Development Studies in Universiti Malaya. Associate Prof Noraida is the chairman of the forum while Prof Suri is the moderator.

Muhammad Abdul Khalid said Malaysia’s GDP is RM1 trillion. The assets of 15 richest families in Malaysia take up three quarters of the GDP.

He said despite hard core poor families have reduced significantly with the national average of 0.6%, hard core poor families of orang asli still remain high.

Chinese record lowest hard core poor families at 0.1%

He pointed out that 2014 figures show that Chinese hard core poor families are lowest in the country at 0.1%. Malays and Indians are 0.8% and 0.6 respectively. The hard core poor rate of Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia is 34% while Sabah and Sarawak 20% and 7.3% respectively.

Although the number of hard core poor families has reduced, families earning between RM2,500 and RM5,000 a month are still considered relatively a poor family. These families made up of 20% in 2012. The figure is quite high and attention should be given.

Dr Kamal Salih said for Malaysia to achieve the vision of a developed nation, it has to adjust several plans. First and foremost, people would enjoy high salary through expansion of high technology.

He said currently salary increment is slow in the job market in Malaysia. Foreign labour is the main factor. Some employers rather hire foreign workers whose salaries are lower. Local workers are hard to fight for a competitive salary.

Second, adjust industrialisation to increase productivity through new industry policy as the basis of salary adjustment. Third, increase income of families by encouraging women to work and eradicate salary discrimination on women.

Fourth, expand the micro-economic system through development of co-operatives to boost financial resources. Fifth provide accumulative capital reward such as housing, education and finance. Sixth, restructure of tax including capital gain. Seventh, reduce problems like financial fluctuation, corruption and power abuse.