GLICs & G20 club to spearhead Malaysia towards high-income nation - Najib

A government-linked investment companies (GLICs) and G20 club will be established by January 2016 to spearhead Malaysia's efforts towards achieving a high-income nation status, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.

"This club will have an important role in spearheading all our efforts to achieve a high-income nation status, guided by three underlying principles of the Government-Linked Companies Transformation (GLCT) Programme," he said.

Meanwhile, G20 are the top 20 GLCs (government-linked companies). Speaking at the GLCT Programme Graduation Ceremony and GLC Open Day 2015 here today, he said the club would also be opened to the rest of corporate Malaysia.

Najib, who is also finance minister, said the GLCs should strive to become not only regional champions but also leaders in their respective industries.

Besides working together with the government to help shape the national agenda, the GLCs also must grow from being well-governed companies to become strong, responsible model institutions.

"We intend to become significant players in the global market.

"As such, we must be able to offer not only products and services of international standards, but must also adopt and adapt the best practices to ensure long-term value creation," he said.

Over the last 10 years, Najib said the GLCs had contributed RM108.6 billion in dividends and RM62.7 billion in taxes, and provided new business opportunities in running vendor development programmes.

He said in 2014, the number of suppliers that the G20 did business with stood at almost 67,000, awarding some RM98.2 billion worth of business.

"In getting the balance between capital economy and people economy, GLCs have improved the well-being of our communities through their various corporate responsibility activities," he added.