FORMER prime minister Najib Razak said Pakatan Harapan’s policies in its mid-term review of the 11th Malaysia Plan are merely a continuation of his administration’s economic policies.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had on Thursday announced the six new areas of focus, or pillars, for the new economic blueprint, which will be valid until 2020.

The six pillars contain policies to “improve checks and balances at all levels”, including separating the role of the attorney-general and the public prosecutor’s office.

However, Najib expressed his “conditional support” for the review, saying that the six pillars was merely a repackaging of Barisan Nasional’s unfinished plans.

“The six pillars that they included were already being done by the BN government. But it was incomplete as it was still a work in progress and needed more time.

“The document they presented is not new, but a continuation of what the BN government had done,” he said.

Earlier, the Pekan member of parliament said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s statement that the government would be able to recover RM10 billion from the cancellation of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) was erroneous.

“The government said that it would recover RM10 billion if it cancelled the ECRL project. But the payment was made by Exim Bank to China Communication Construction Company.

“If we cancel, the money ought to be returned to Exim Bank. So how is the government going to recover RM10 billion?” he asked during the debate on the 11th Malaysia Plan Mid-Term Review today.

Exim Bank, or the Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Berhad, is a development financial institution owned by the government through a wholly-owned subsidiary of Minister of Finance Incorporated.

Najib also questioned how the government came up with the RM81 billion price tag for the ECRL project when his administration signed for only RM55 billion.

“There must be a basis to their valuation of RM81 billion. The costs would have been higher if there was double-tracking, but we hadn’t decided yet,” said Najib.

He also once again disputed the PH government’s claims that the national debt was RM1 trillion.

“The report states that the government debt is 50.8% of GDP or RM686 billion last year. There’s no RM1 trillion figure,” said Najib. – October 23, 2018.