Ahmad Zahid delivers his speech during the launching of the Kongres Ekonomi Bumiputera 2024 in Putrajaya 29 February 2024. – Malay Mail photo
PUTRAJAYA (Feb 29): Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today called for genuine economic collaboration between Malaysia’s Bumiputera and other communities as he inaugurated the first Bumiputera Economic Congress held by the Anwar administration.
Zahid said interracial economic cooperation has existed since the New Economic Policy that was introduced by the second prime minister, the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, but suggested “some aspects of the collaboration may have questionable genuineness”.
He expressed hope that the three-day congress would rectify this through resolutions that would cement stronger inter-ethnic economic relationships.
“We must foster genuine economic ties between the Bumiputera and other ethnicities. In the context of inclusivity this relationship existed since the NEP but some aspects of the collaboration may have questionable genuineness,” he said.
“Through the Bumiputera Economic Transformation (plan), we don’t want economic activities done only in the name of the Bumiputera. We want Ali and Baba to genuinely work together to do business,” the deputy prime minister added in a play on the term “Ali Baba” commonly used to describe rent-seeking. – Malay Mail
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