This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 12, 2019

PUTRAJAYA: The government is looking into reducing the number of processes that businesses and investors need to go through to do business in Malaysia, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said this was decided at the third meeting of the 16-member Economic Action Council (EAC) yesterday, which had ease of doing business as one of its main meeting agenda.

“We see businesses find it difficult to obtain approval to invest and contribute to the growth of the economy,” said Dr Mahathir at a press conference after the meeting.

As such, the premier said the chief secretary to the government had been instructed to reduce the number of processes, beginning with the construction sector.

“There are sixty processes for the construction [sector alone] ... in some places, it takes three years before you can [kick-start a project],” Dr Mahathir said.

Among the suggestions are to identify the full workflow chart of the whole process to get a project or investment approved, and to allow agencies involved to expedite the approval of a process under their purview without having to wait for the approval of other agencies, added the prime minister.

Additionally, the EAC also seeks to reduce regulatory costs and delays in getting business approvals.

Moving forward, the EAC intends to also focus on the tourism sector to spur the domestic economy, and to increase foreign exchange earnings.

No decision on fuel subsidy yet

Separately, Dr Mahathir said the government had not come out yet with a decision on the targeted fuel subsidy mechanism that was proposed in the election manifesto.

“We have only come to the stage of getting the data. No real decision has been made [on the mechanism],” Dr Mahathir said.

Dr Mahathir added that the plan remains to have the mechanism — meant to target the bottom 40% (B40) income group as opposed to a blanket fuel subsidy previously — ready by July this year.

The implementation of the targeted RON95 petrol subsidy mechanism falls under the purview of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

On April 10, Saifuddin said in a written parliamentary reply to Sungai Siput member of parliament Kesavan Subramaniam that the government had chosen a vendor to work with his ministry to implement the system, without naming the vendor or elaborating on the selection method.

“The ministry is of the view that the burden of the subsidy should not be given to petrol station operators considering it will affect the business cash flow, which will later affect petrol supply,” Saifuddin said in the reply.

He added that the government plans to use data collected under the cost of living aid for the B40 income group, developed by the ministry of finance, as the core database as to who is qualified to receive the aid.