THE government should not be involved in business, said former finance minister Johari Abdul Ghani, adding its job is to administer the country.

The Titiwangsa MP said the government has only a supporting role in helping the private sector to grow the economy and create jobs.

“That should be the role of the government instead of going into business. The government (should) focus on running the government and collecting taxes.

“When the government starts to do business, that’s when many problems arise,” the Umno leader was quoted as saying in an interview with Free Malaysia Today today.

An example of this, he said, was the 5G rollout. Johari say the government should not have set up its own special-purpose vehicle, Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) for the purpose.

He said Putrajaya should have had the telecommunication companies do it instead.

“In Thailand, when the government decided to introduce 5G, it did not set up a 5G entity. As a result, their rollout was very fast and smooth.

“We (Malaysia) set up a company to deal with the telcos but the telcos do not have confidence in the government entity,” he added.

He said this was why the project was stalled at only around 40%.

The Minister of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc) owns DNB, which is tasked with building and managing the 5G network. It is also the single wholesale provider of 5G services.

The government’s 5G rollout plan has been fraught with delays since it was launched at the end of 2021. Some network operators have refused to buy in because of pricing and transparency issues.

It was reported that Maxis, the second-largest mobile phone company in Malaysia with some 20 million subscribers, has yet to sign up for DNB’s 5G network.

In December, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim ordered a review of the 5G rollout, saying it lacked transparency and did not comply with the tender process.

DNB has denied this claim.

Johari said the government could lose about RM16.5 billion of its investment in 5G infrastructure should the venture fail.

“But if you give it to the private sector, they will know how to manage it; we just need to make sure we control the mechanism to ensure it benefits the government and people,” he said.

He said the government could earn RM5-6 billion in revenue from leasing out the spectrum to the network providers. 

“These network providers will then further invest in a demand-driven network rollout, which will not only be faster than DNB but also reach communities and industries that need 5G first.” – February 19, 2023.