Thread by @khalidkarim

What do I wish for Malaysia in 2019?

More jobs,better wages & an affordable cost of living for all especially on mobility and housing.

Affordable Mobility is not needing a car in order to lead a productive life.
Affordable Housing only possible when there is Affordable Mobility

It is all very good to wish for something.But without proper allocation of resources,it will end up as a dream.

The first hurdle is to raise enuff funding for the programs.
Once the funding plan (how to pay debt) is agreed,Govt can borrow and invest on the programs immediately.

What are the new Funding Sources for these Future-forward Objectives?My suggestions;

1)Capital Gains to be recognised as incomes
2)More progressive taxes up to a ceiling of 50% for the Top 1%
3)Fuel tax of RM2 per liter

Additional tax revenue of RM70B/year ie RM700B war chest

With an RM700B war chest that can be spent in 2019;we can truly re-structure and do really good things.

It is all about:

Jobs
Wages
Cost of Living

Instead of trickle down,the future is everybody up.

The first initiative will be a Universal Basic Income of RM400/per month for all households with income of less than RM6000 per month.
This will cost about RM25B per year ie RM250B over the ten years.

(I hv excluded inflationary impact to simplify the Arithmetics)

Initiative 2 is to invest in public transportation~not only GKL...but throughout the country.
No more big flashy projects...focus is on outcome to the people...the users.And not to owners of capital and assets.
Good PT is essential with the increase of fuel prices.

There is a lot more work to finalise the best PT Plan..but in essence will be;
1)Abort MRT2 and LRT3
2)1000 km of BRT corridors in all the major towns
3)10,000 buses of different configurations ie minibus,normal buses etc
4)Upgrading incl quadrupling of ETS lines

Most of the PT Plan capital expenditure will be funded by the nett savings of aborting MRT2 and LRT3.
However,an additional standby allocation of RM30B is allowed to cover for optimism bias

One big problem of buses is the lack of drivers.The easy way out is of cos to bring in foreign workers...but that is a big no-no in my opinion.
My suggestion is better wages and work conditions.And to transform the job as a TVET.
Starting basic pay shud be 2 times minimum wage

The bus operating model shud be "Bus Contracting" whereby companies are given a contract to operate & maintain a package of bus-routes under a fixed sum contract ie no ridership/revenue risk.
We shud also convert to a largely e-bus fleet.

A subsidy of RM2B per year is to be allocated for bus operations ie RM20B over the 10 years.

There will be upstream opportunities for fabrication & assembly SMEs for the forecasted demand of 20k buses over the 10 years.

For ETS and Komuter...the vision is
1)Increased frequencies of 5-10 minutes at peak for Komuter trains
2)Improved Komuter stations with feeder buses,walkways,bike paths & parks & integrated ticketing.
3)For ETS, it's extending the 1 hour transit trips to Slim River & Rembau

New routes shud be considered eg the old Sg Buloh-Kuala Sgor line.
Refer to @9VSQA proposals on ETS upgrading for details

RM40B is to be allocated for KTM upgrading including for quadrupling of tracks & associated,rolling stocks,station improvements & 10 year O&M subsidies

With better public transport coverage...more potential development land becomes viable.More land is cheaper cost of housing.
(At least 20,000 acres gazetted to avoid speculation...more on land tax later)

Ok..what do u people think of my wish list so far?
Hv explained my concept of Universal Basic Income and Affordable Mobility and touched on Affordable Housing and potential job creation...

Whereas Pemandu was focussing on GDP...via programs to enhance higher ROI for owners of capital and assets...my focus is on well being of the people.
Pemandu is trickle down, mine is bottom up.

Who doesn't like the occasional bottoms up?

Now...to the next subject ie job creation.Obviously,the Affordability Mobility initiatives will create quite a large number of jobs during the construction of the BRT,manufacturing of buses and drivers/crew at the operations stage.

Malaysia hv a target to achieve 20% RE by 2030.I propose that we step up the program to 30% by 2030 and accelerated 20% by 2025.

The investment to achieve 20% RE is huge ie about RM120B.But..input by Govt is bridge funding to make RE competitive to coal~estimated to be RM40B.

RE is not only solar...one of our big untapped resources is Biomass Waste.Shud mobilise our Uni to really come up with solutions on how to harness this energy source.Issues not only technical..
Rotting biomass creates methane ie more volatile+higher carbon emission
RM300M funding

Land & Energy storage will be the constraint for large scale solar developments.Thus,we must consider roof top capture & floating PVs.
For storage..we hv potential for physical storage eg pumped hydro storage.
Obviously,a lot of tech,economic and financial feasibility needed

In tandem with the RE investments...we shud also push on Energy Efficiency Management (EEM).We can probably reduce our Energy Consumption by 10%.
Allocation of RM5B for EEM inclusive of soft loans support for facilities upgrading

RE and EEM will create a lot of job opportunities...at various stages of the supply chain and phases of works.Generally~70% will be high skill jobs.It will also create biz opportunities for SMEs.

Another potential job creator is digital govt ie a big push to make govt more efficient.
For a start,their main communication channel ie the websites must be revamped~make it more user friendly.
Allocation:RM5B

Still have a lot of money left from the RM700B war chest.

Food sufficiency and security must not be ignored.Despite the many initiatives of the past...we hv not moved forward as much as we shud.
Farmers and Fishermen are still living at almost poverty levels.
Obvioysly...we need new ideas at production and delivery chain levels

I hv a very utopian fantasy whereby producers gets 80% of the market price of their produce.
The fisherman gets RM14.40 when I buy their kembong at RM18.The chicken farmer gets RM11 when I buy kampong chicken at RM14/kg.

Is producer direct to fridge possible with new tech?

I also like climate controlled farms..producing 150 tons per annum in a 20,000 ft2 facility.
Do we have the technologist that can make that a reality?

Met the guys from Padi Rescue and the problems within the sector seems insurmountable.It is a rot from the farm all the way to processing.I can barely understand the issues...so will not attempt to.
nkkhoo.com/2018/12/06/sol…
But diversification of income cud be interesting

Can we agrotech our farm sector?
An allocation of RM20bil on non-traditional approaches to moving the sector forward shud be a good start.And it shud be led by our agri & tech experts...and entrepreneurs~potential creating employment opportunities for our young grads

Seen many variants of startups in agri-based sector.This is just one example from our neighbour. igrow.asia/v1/
@syawal hv highlighted contract farming ala Farmville from India.
Msia also hv subscription based fish supply
Shud give these young IT-savvy funding to disrupt

Regional disparity is obvious looking at this chart of SME .
We need to create more jobs in the less developed States.
Ideally...manufacturing is the best.But very much chicken and egg.
Maybe..shud insist that all consumables incl uniforms for Gov be manufactured in these regions