KUALA LUMPUR, 1 Mac: The Datum Jelatek Project in Keramat which is being developed by the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) is an effort to expand the capability of the Malay community to be more bold-hearted in asset ownership.
According to Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, this is also an effort to help the Malay community to make a paradigm shift in development seeing that the New Economic Policy (NEP) failed to achieve its true goal till today.
“One of the weaknesses of the NEP is that we trapped the Bumiputera community in a situation where they would get (for example) what is called a cake.
“Now we are finding ways on how to make the cake bigger.
“Previously, Malays could only attain property from RM30 to RM40 million, now we are widening the property so that the Malay community is open to RM500 to RM700 million,” he said at a press conference.
Abdul Khalid described that some of the Umno-BN members are not savvy about such things to a point that the Malay community is afraid to come out and face greater competition.
“Perhaps, some Umno people are not savvy about this matter. That is why some Malays are not bold-hearted.
“(Treat) Datum Jelatek a test. Otherwise, we are like frogs under the coconut shell (Malay idiom which likens someone to a frog that lives under a coconut shell, who believes the shell to be its entire world),” he added.
Earlier media reports quoted that the Datum Jelatek Project will boost Bumiputera ownership to more than RM500 million.
This decision will altogether boost Bumiputera ownership by 15 times where previously, the value of ownership of the Bumiputera in the area was just around RM20 million.
Development in the Jelatek area previously witnessed a cost of not more than RM20,000 per unit with 99 percent belonging to the Bumiputera community.
Earlier, Abdul Khalid delivered a keynote address in conjunction with the Datum Economic Forum 2013 (DEF’13) which was held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
Themed “Building Communities Enriching Lives”, the Datum Economic Forum was organised by Datumcorp International as was also attended by the Chairman of Roubini Global Economics, Nouriel Roubini, who is an expert on the world economy and who was named as Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine.
Also present was PKNS General Manager, Othman Omar and PKNS Board Member, Azmin Ali.
This world-class conference brought together policy thinkers, industry leaders and business champions to share opinions and to find a solution to the current economic scenario as well as future challenges.
The forum aims to highlight emerging issues in order to enrich the lives of today’s society and to strengthen discussions about the direction and government leadership.