His Majesty advised members of parliament to help and facilitate the people’s affairs to rebuild life with a sense of security, peace and prosperity for the sake of the country. — Bernama photos
KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 28): Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah said the country’s economic recovery must be expedited so that Malaysia does not lag behind.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the First Meeting of the Fifth Term of the 14th Parliament, His Majesty advised members of parliament to help and facilitate the people’s affairs to rebuild life with a sense of security, peace and prosperity for the sake of the country.
“Going forward, I call on all honourable members to continue to maintain the understanding that has been built and also preserve the political stability that has been achieved,” he said.
Al-Sultan Abdullah said the Malaysian economy is projected to continue to grow strongly with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of between 5.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent in 2022.
“The Malaysian economy had grown by 3.1 per cent in 2021 after experiencing a contraction of 5.6 per cent in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The recovery in economic growth shows the effectiveness of eight series of assistance and economic stimulus packages in 2020 and 2021 which totalled RM530 billion in addition to the Budget 2022 allocation,” he said.
His Majesty also expressed his congratulations to the government on its success in providing a total of 558,633 job placements to the rakyat compared to the target of 500,000 in 2021.
“Among the indicators of economic recovery are declining unemployment and improving labour market conditions.
“For 2022 under the Jamin Kerja Keluarga Malaysia initiative, the government has targeted the provision of almost 600,000 job opportunities,” he said. – Bernama