KUALA LUMPUR: The Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia (MCCM) is seeking 60 per cent participation in all Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) projects.
President Syed Ali Alatas said currently the participation of MCCM members in the projects were not encouraging.
Citing the Mass Rapid Transit project (MRT), he said only 37 Class A contractors, who are MCCM members, were involved in four per cent of the project.
According to recent reports, the construction cost of the entire 150 km MRT urban transport project may run up to RM50 billion.
Syed Ali said MCCM was not impressed by the EPP announcements by Pemandu. “We are alarmed by the scale in which Bumiputera companies have been completely marginalised from the ETP…there should be distribution of wealth.” he added.
“The ETP was the last opportunity for the Bumiputera community to build capacity and complete on an equal footing in the Malaysian and global marketplace.
“The reason given is that Bumiputera contractors can only undertake small projects such as drainage,” he said, adding that this has effectively demolished any hope of Bumiputera companies participating globally.
Syed Ali said MCCM members can actually implement projects by way of joint-ventures.
“We have gone to India to do road projects. Indonesia has also invited us for projects and we are looking at Saudi Arabia now. I just came back from Jeddah,” he said.
Hence, Syed Ali said, Pemandu should review its role in the implementation of the EPPs.
He said another example was the oil and gas industry.
“Bumiputera participation in the services sector is only 6.7 per cent. The EPP is designed to liberalise the local oil & gas industry allowing big foreign players to enter the industry without Bumiputera stake and partners. This will cause 3,000 Bumiputera vendors, registered with Petronas, to be sidelined,” he said.
Syed Ali also cited the scenario in the agriculture sector which had the highest impact on rural Malays.
“It is strategic because Malaysian farmers need to modernise their methods and produce according to global standards.
“That’s why it is important to have EPPs targeted for the agricultural sector,” he added. — Bernama