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[1428] Of issue with Mavtrac
The Malaysian government has set up a special purpose vehicle to provide manufacturers related to the implementation of the Ninth Malaysia Plan with reliable supply of resources, hopefully, cheaply:
THE government has set up a special purpose vehicle to directly bulk-buy building materials from manufacturers at fair prices so as to facilitate timely implementation of Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) projects.
This is in response to the repeated appeals by contractors that rising prices in steel bars and cement are hampering execution of government construction jobs.
To be launched this Friday by Finance Minister II Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Mavtrac Sdn Bhd will deal with steel bars, cement, diesel, bitumen, sand, agregrates, copper and aluminium. Mavtrac is parked under UEM Group Bhd and is wholly owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd. [Mavtrac to help smoothen path for 9th Plan projects. Business Times. October 31 2007]
This sounds like a good idea; it is very much like the Australian model to provide discounted drugs to Australians which I have suggested for adoption by the Malaysian health system in hope of avoiding inefficient subsidies. Perhaps it is not too much to identity such entity as a benevolent monopoly. There is however one major difference between the former and the latter models — the latter is not an SPV.
One issue looms though: the goal of bulk-discount may encourage oversupply of resources in the local economy. The bias of buy, buy, buy is clearly visible. That however may not be the greatest danger: if ever, prices are to fall in the face of growing unsold inventories, who are going to purchase those inventories?
But with the Chinese economy at high speed moving forward, maybe one does not have to be overly worried. Mavtrac could always offer those resources to someone outside of the scope of the Ninth Malaysia Plan.
Or maybe, because Khazanah Nasional is behind it, one does not need to worry at all…
As far as I know, this is the second wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah. The first is an entity responsible to improve the local agricultural supply chain, which, I will leave to you to find out by yourselves.
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[1427] Of Weeeezeerrrr
[youtube]2hyoszso38E[/youtube]
p/s — YouTube disabled embedding for this particular video. So, it will not appear here. Sigh…
It strikes me as odd that the most successful federations throughout history of Southeast Asia centered around the Strait of Malacca. Those federations include Srivijaya, Negeri Sembilan, the Federated Malay States, Malaya and later Malaysia. I am unaware of any other federation that exist outside the link between Srivijaya and Malaysia. Is there something about the people of this area that prefer a federated form of government instead of unitary states?
At first glance, I think culture and other deterministic factors like tried form of governance which later reinforced local culture are the answers. I would really love to visit it soon. I find it hard to resort to coincidence; coincidence sounds like a lazy man’s answer.
In the meantime, I would appreciate if you, dear readers, could offer your thoughts on the matter.
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[1425] Of before you go…
This subsiding weekend is one of few which routines were delightfully broken. I was at the Malaysian Nature Society-managed Kuala Selangor Nature Park to celebrate its 20th anniversary with friends.
I stayed there and the accommodation was surprising comfortable given my initial expectation. I guess, if one had expected the worst, almost anything would surpass that expectation; I brought a sleeping bag with me but it was an unnecessary burden. Or maybe, I had a full day and I could hardly notice anything to complain about.
One of the first activities were tree planting but several groups and one of them represented ExxonMobil. I am unsure how over a thousand sapling planted would offset Exxon’s carbon emissions but at least something, eh?
There is a walkway from a man-made coastal bund into the mangrove swamp which the saplings were planted. Anybody that wishes to take a walk into the swamp via the walkway will notice this:
I will share more photos later but for now, I hate Monday; I should have taken my leave.