Worth of Malaysia’s 40 richest soars 42pc to US$51b

SINGAPORE, May 27 —

Malaysia’s top 40 richest are worth US$51 billion (RM168 billion), up from US$36 billion a year ago, and higher than the previous record of US$46 billion registered in 2008.

According to Forbes Asia in its Malaysia Rich List 2010 released today, their combined wealth has risen by 42 per cent, spurred by the country’s economic expansion.

The overall increase in wealth was also in line with the 32 per cent rise in the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index, and the ringgit’s 11 per cent gain against the US dollar over the past 12 months, Forbes said.


Topping the rich list again is Tan Sri Robert Kuok who has held the pole position since 2006 when Forbes Asia began ranking the 40 richest Malaysians.

Forbes said the biggest gainer in dollar terms this year, the 86-year-old tycoon’s net worth increased to US$12 billion, a gain of US$3 billion over last year.

Top telecommunications tycoon Tan Sri T. Ananda Krishnan remains in second place with US$8.1 billion, an increase of US$1.1 billion from a year ago.

His Maxis Communications, Malaysia’s largest mobile phone service provider, went public last year and raised US$3.4 billion in the country’s largest-ever IPO.

Unchanged at third position is Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng with US$4.6 billion, up from US$3.2 billion last year.

The 71-year-old heads IOI Group, one of the world’s leading operators of palm oil refineries. The company is reportedly investing US$300 million to expand.

Forbes said the top three tycoons were not the only ones who saw gains in their wealth, 27 others on the list also registered growth in their net worth, particularly notable is technology tycoon Goh Peng Ooi, ranked No. 16, who enjoyed the biggest percentage jump.
His fortune increased to US$425 million from US$112 million previously, a massive jump of 280 per cent.

Forbes said this year a minimum net worth of US$110 million was needed to qualify for the list, up from US$90 million last year.
It said the number of billionaires had also increased, with now 10 tycoons with a 10-figure net worth, compared with nine a year ago.

Newcomers making the rich list this year included brothers Datuk Shahril and Shahriman Shamsuddin who shared the No. 23 spot with a net worth of US$270 million.They have equal stakes in Sapura Group, founded by their father.Shahril is chief executive of its affiliate SapuraCrest Petroleum, the listed oil and gas contractor that makes up the bulk of their fortune.

Another new face is self-made building contractor Datuk A.K. Nathan, 54, who is ranked No. 24 and worth US$250 million.His company, Eversendai, has been involved in some of the most high-profile buildings in the Middle East including Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

Forbes said three people were back on the list after having fallen off previously, and the most notable is Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s brother and head of financial services firm CIMB. He is ranked No. 32 with a net worth of US$145 million.

Malaysia: Net Oil Importer Beginning 2011?

Malaysia is likely to become an oil importer as early as next year at the current rate it is consuming petroleum,so says  Idris Jala, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department as reported by Bernama today.


Malaysians continue to be among the highest fuel consumers per capita in the world fuel consumption habits pattern which generally has remained relatively unchanged despite increased oil prices in 2008.

He also said that approximately 70 per cent of the government’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) subsidy goes to commercial concerns and not the intended households. [Ask yourself,why is this so?]

About 30 per cent of the cooking oil subsidy is also abused, he said. [Ditto above]

He said the government is proposing to phase out the petrol subsidy gradually in line with its move to strategically position Malaysia’s economy on a stronger footing to realise the aspirations of Vision 2020, which is to achieve a developed, high-income nation status.

“Subsidies are an inaccurate representation of trade,” Idris said when officiating the Subsidy Lab Open Day here to receive feedback from the public on subsidies.

“In addition, they pose a fiscal burden that emerging economies such as Malaysia should move away from. As such, we desperately need an exit strategy for subsidies, as they are unsustainable,” he said.

“In order to save the country, we need to increase our GDP, Malaysians need to be aware we are giving the highest subsidies — 4.6 per cent of GDP, even higher than Indonesia (2.7 per cent) and the Philippines (0.2 per cent),” said Idris, who is also chief executive officer of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu).

Malaysia is one of the most subsidised nations in the world. Its total subsidy of RM74 billion in 2009 is equivalent to RM12,900 per household.

This covers the areas of Social (RM42.8 billion), Fuel (RM23.5 billion), Infrastructure (RM4.6 billion) and Food (RM3.1 billion).

“All savings to reduce these savings are intended to reduce our deficit and debt of RM103 billion in five years,” he said.

Meanwhile, studies by Bank Negara have shown that inflation will rise to four per cent (2011-2012) and three per cent post-2013.

Subsidies only result in market distortion and they drain the government of much-needed funds that could be better used for more strategic and pressing development projects for the rakyat, Idris said.

“The time for subsidy rationalisation is now,” he said.

“We are reviewing the possibility of introducing a floating price mechanism, mitigation measures and assistance needed to put in place.”

“We do not want to end up like Greece with a total debt of 300 billion euros.

Our deficit rose to record high of RM47 billion last year.

“If the government continues at the rate of 12 per cent per annum, Malaysia could go bankrupt in 2019 with total debts amounting to RM1,158 billion,” he cautioned.

Look, who's talking?

Malaysia: Cut Off Subsidies or be Greece

The Federal Government says it will save RM103 billion over the next five years if it starts to cut subsidies now. 

Datuk Seri Idris Jala , who is in charge of the Government Transformation Plan (GTP), said today Malaysia had a whopping RM362 billion debt and must start reducing subsidies amounting to RM74 billion last year to avoid becoming a bankrupt nation by 2019.

“We do not want to end up like Greece,” the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department told a packed hall at the government’s open day to rationalise subsidies here this morning.

But my friend, how about seriously trimming down a bloated civil service, wiping out corruption and preventing wastage at the same time?

So kawan, let us have a more holistic approach to save Malaysia from financial ruin, okay?

Subsidies alone is not the culprit...............

Praise to the 'Sinner' Class

In days of old, tax collectors rank on equal footing as doctors and grave diggers. They were considered as  the ' sinful class' for the jobs they do. Today,except for the grave-diggers,the doctors have become a most favoured worker category and now tax collectors are even exalted and paid bonuses.

This latest accolade to Malaysian tax collectors is sufficient testimony.

" The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has taken home a RM1mil incentive for winning the Prime Minister’s Innovation Award.

The reward, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, could be used in any way deemed meaningful by the board – including for training purposes or to be given out as bonus.

Najib hoped the award would be a strong encouragement for the department – all the way from the head of department to the lowest level of staff – to want to perform even better.

The Prime Minister presented the award at a ceremony yesterday.

IRB chief executive officer Datuk Hasmah Abdullah said the department had always been negatively perceived by the public, but this would not dampen its determination to keep improving.

“Many people have the common perception that paying taxes is burdening. Our key to innovation is to make tax payment easy and we have done it successfully,” she said after receiving the award from Najib.

Earlier in his speech, Najib said Malaysia had no choice but to be willing to embrace change in this globalised era. The public sector must be able to think out of the box and be creative to bring about development.

“We need to engage new methodology and approach because other countries which were not our competitors before have changed and are competing against us,” he said.

He added that the Government sector had taken a big leap when it introduced the National Key Result Areas and Key Performance Index to ensure that the country was not lagging behind when others were moving forward.

“There must be innovation in the government administration to ensure that its outcome will please and satisfy the rakyat,” he said."

To my mind, the IRB has definitely improved particularly in electronic submissions and tax refunds.

Syabas, IRB!

Mah Sing Turning Magical

Mah Sing Bhd posted a net profit of RM27.9mil in the first quarter ended March 31, 2010, 23.2% higher compared with the same period last year.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the group said its revenue rose 58.5% to RM238.3 in the quarter under review.
It said the result was mainly driven by better performance of its property and plastic divisions.

“Apart from property development, our plastics division also contributed positively to the quarter’s earnings,” it said.

The group achieved strong sales of RM601mil in the first quarter, which is 60% of the full year target of RM1bil.

It said the group would continue its innovative marketing strategies to promote quality properties with good concepts in prime locations.

As at March 31, the group has unbilled sales of about RM1.1bil, giving them significant earnings visibility.

This may be a stock to watch as it is now a potential boutique developer like SP Setia and Sunrise.

Remote Service from the Civil Service

We do hope this is not another motherhood statement. As the saying goes," If wishes were horses, beggars will ride them".

According to the Chief Secretary,the government is working on several initiatives to make public service delivery accessible and mobile for the people.

These include the e-Land system, Local Authority System (ePBT), AgriBazaar, e-Syariah and school management system and many more initiatives which extend into the various sectors -- economic, social, infrastructure and security.

“Mobile government means customers can transact with the government from where they are, not where we, the provider, are,” he said.

“Hence the need for a new kind of technology understanding. A technology and an innovation that can be so simple that people do not even notice they have been served. That, to me, is the ultimate service.”

“It is about getting done what you need done in the simplest, shortest and most efficient manner,” he added.

“If we can do that, at all and every level of our internal and external transactions, using the best that technology and innovation combined can bring, we would have taken public service delivery to a whole new level altogether, not only in Malaysia, but globally setting new benchmarks.”

Sidek said the government has earmarked e-Government as one of the seven flagships of the Multimedia Super Corridor and the use of technology has seeped into among others, human resource management,electronic procurement,bill payment to licence applications and project monitoring system.

He said with increasing cyber attacks and security fears, another entrapment of technology is the rise of protectionism and firewalls.

“As a result, we fall back yet again into the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’. Rampant e-mail bouncing, servers reject mails, legal addresses are seen as spam,” he said.

“All these affect the very thing technology is supposed to effuse which is speed, ease, accessibility and connectivity.”

Sidek said businesses and governments need to face some fundamental questions relating to speed, access, security and privacy as they invest more and more into digitising service, raising access to information and broadening connectivity of societies and communities.

Well,well, well, I think all of these are great but at the same time,let us not forget too the value of a smile when we have to do some counter service. So, those manning these counters must have a ' quick to smile' attitude, don't you agree?

Organics: Are We taken for a Ride?

Consumers who opt for organic foods often believe they are improving their health but there is currently no strong evidence that organics bring nutrition-related health benefits, a new research review finds.

A “disappointingly small” number of well-designed studies have looked at whether organic foods may have health benefits beyond their conventional counterparts, according to the review by researchers with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health in Britain.

Moreover, they found, what studies have been done have largely focused on short-term effects of organic eating — mainly antioxidant activity in the body — rather than longer-term health outcomes.

Most of the antioxidant studies failed to find differences between organic and conventional diets. The review, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, adds to findings reported last year by the same research team.

In that study, the researchers combed through 162 articles published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, and found no evidence that organic and conventional foods differ significantly in their nutrient content. For the current review, the researchers were able to find only 12 published studies that met their criteria for evaluating the health effects of organic foods.

“A surprising and important finding of this review is the extremely limited nature of the evidence base on this subject, both in terms of the number and quality of studies,” wrote Dr Alan Dangour and his colleagues.
Research in the area does appear to be increasing, Dangour’s team noted, with 4 of the 12 studies they reviewed published in 2008 or 2009. But in the future, the researchers add, studies -- both in humans and animals — need to be better-designed.

Of the 12 studies the researchers identified, 6 were short-term clinical trials that looked at whether specific organic foods changed markers of antioxidant activity in participants’ blood.

Those trials showed no strong evidence that organic eating boosted antioxidant activity, but the studies were also very limited in scope as they were small — with the largest including 43 men — and lasted no longer than a few weeks. Out of the other 6 studies, one found an association between organic foods and a lower risk of the allergic skin condition eczema among nearly 2,800 Dutch children age 2 or younger.

In that study, parents were surveyed several times about their children’s diet and any episodes of eczema over the first two years of life. Researchers found that children who consumed strictly organic dairy products showed a lower risk of eczema than those consumed conventional dairy foods. However, the study had several key limitations, including its reliance on parents’ reports of eczema and the basic design of the study does not allow for any conclusions about whether children’s consumption of organic dairy was the reason for the lower eczema risk.

While questions remain as to whether organic foods have any extra nutritional value, people buy organic for a number of other reasons as well.

Organic foods are made without the use of conventional pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics or hormones — which could potentially reap benefits for people’s health and the environment.

The current review, Dangour and his colleagues point out, did not look for studies on the possible health benefits of reduced exposure to those substances nor did it address the environmental impact of organic food production. — Reuters