‘Panel has 18 months to cut national debt to manageable level’

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 16): The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has set up a debt and liability management committee, which is tasked with reducing the government’s debts and liabilities to a manageable level within the next 18 months.

The committee will report directly to the prime minister, said the PMO in a statement yesterday. However, it has not underlined specific measures to address Malaysia’s debt burden. The committee, said the PMO, consists of five members with expertise in finance, economics, and law.

“They are Treasury secretary-general Datuk Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir, Attorney-General’s Chambers head of advisory division Toh Puan Azian Mohd Aziz, and Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid, the economic adviser to the prime minister, Bank Negara Malaysia board member Gooi Hoe Soon and Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) board member Faris Rabidin,” it added.

Ahmad Badri has experience in economic management and finance, with a range of portfolio including as National Budget Office director and deputy secretary for finance, loan management, financial market and actuary section in 30 years serving as a civil servant. 

Azian also serves as a non-executive director in government-owned trustee organisation Amanah Raya Bhd. Prior to that, she served under different ministries and government bodies, including the ministry of finance (MoF) and the PMO. Muhammed Abdul Khalid was previously a research director in national sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd, and served as SC head of economics. He has been a consultant at the World Bank and the UN, among others. 

Gooi is currently on the board of Proton Holdings Bhd as well as other public listed companies. The accounting and corporate finance practitioner also serves as chief executive officer in venture capital management firm Astra Partners Sdn Bhd. 

Faris, who served as an external consultant for the Asian Development Bank, also served in the special committee probing troubled-strategic investment fund 1MDB under the Council of Eminent Persons.

On Nov 2 last year, when tabling Budget 2019 in Parliament, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that the government would set up the committee to review and manage its debts and liabilities. 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Jan 16, 2019.

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