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No. 4645 PP 2644/12/2008 (020369)

Monday
November 24, 2008
TELLING IT AS IT IS www.sun2surf.com

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Illegal deposit charge
Four directors of two companies were
charged with illegal deposit-taking
amounting to more than RM37 million
in Kota Baru yesterday. They were from
Business Time Dina Sdn Bhd (above) and
Pan Phoenix Dina Sdn Bhd. A patron of both
firms was also charged. Report page 2.
BERNAMAPIX
Apec consensus
to raise spending
We must restore confidence
L
IMA: Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (Apec) leaders
in our economies. They have agreed to Malaysia’s call
for member economies to coordinate
cannot be complacent; they their fiscal stimulus packages to raise
must resort to expansionary spending in efforts to haul the global
economy out of the crippling recession.
means to save the world.” “Apec leaders decided that the
fiscal stimulus in the form of an
expansionary budget is necessary
to save the world from sliding into
recession,” Deputy Prime Minister
Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak told
Malaysian journalists after the first day
of the two-day leaders’ summit in the
Peruvian capital.
Najib, who is finance minister, said
Asia-Pacific economies must raise
liquidity and lending to consumers to
boost trade and investment.
“We must restore confidence in our
economies,” he said.
Najib said that economies, both
Apec and non-Apec, must get their act
together to prevent the global economy
from slipping into recession.
“They cannot be complacent; they
must resort to expansionary means to
save the world.”
He said each country must embark
on a fiscal stimulus in a co-ordinated
fashion and ascertain the amount of
injection that was required.
At the moment, what has been
decided is that the fiscal stimulus must
be calculated on a global basis.
This is the first time that Apec
leaders dedicated the entire first day
of the two-day summit, hosted by
Peruvian President Alan Garcia at the
Defence Ministry Convention Centre, to
discussing the global economic crisis.
packages are China, which
implemented a package worth US$750
billion, but credit from the proposed
US$600 billion package by the United
States is slow in coming.
For Bretton Woods institutions such
as the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank, Najib said they must
play the role of providing the liquidity
via short-term capital to certain
countries facing balance of payments
problem.
Najib said these agencies needed to
ascertain the amount of injection which
was needed to stimulate economic
activity in countries grappling with the
recession.
To this end, he said, leaders now
saw the need for a new global financial
architecture or Bretton Woods II, which
meant the IMF and World Bank would
have to transform themselves given the
dynamics in the global economy.
The whole IMF thinking was not
valid any more, he said.
In a statement issued after the first
day of deliberations, Apec leaders
said they would support export credit
agencies, international financial
institutions and private banks to ensure
that adequate finance was available to
business, including small and medium-
sized enterprises.
“This will keep trade and
investment flowing in the region,” the
leaders representing the 21-member
economies said in the statement.
Najib said that the leaders also
agreed that this was not the time for
economies to resort to protectionism,
but the better option was to embrace a
more open economy that will support

Among countries which have expansionary policies (photo on page

instituted comprehensive stimulus 2). – Bernama

Countdown to probe on astronaut

KUCHING: A probe will start tomorrow
into claims that the country’s first man
in space, Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar
Shukor Sheikh Mustapha, has amassed
RM1.2 million from payments for talks
he gave on his experience in space.
Deputy Science, Technology and
Innovation Minister Fadillah Yusof
said that the investigation would be
conducted by a committee to be set
up after the deadline for receiving all
reports and complaints from the public
ended today.
Speaking after launching a fam-
ily day yesterday, he confirmed that
the ministry had received letters of
complaint since the allegation surfaced
but declined to divulge details.
“We urge the public not to come
with only letters of complaint but
also to substantiate their complaints
with solid evidence such as receipts
as proof of payment, invoices and all
written attachments or correspond-
ence related to any event attended by
him (Dr Sheikh Muszaphar),” he said.
Failure to furnish solid evidence
would leave the ministry with no
choice but to regard the complaints as
mere allegations, he said.
“If we don’t receive many com-
plaints, we can conclude the investi-
gation very fast but if there are many
it may take a little bit longer but our
target is to complete (the probe) by
early December,” he said when asked
about the time-frame for the inquiry.
Fadillah said the scope of the
investigation would be, among other
things, to determine if the astronaut
charged for his appearance or talks
and to recommend appropriate action
to be taken by the ministry.
Sheikh Muszaphar, who was on
one-year contract with the ministry,
allegedly charged RM8,000 per hour
for giving talks from 150 corporations
since his return from the International
Space Station in October last year. His
duties included giving talks at schools
and universities to inspire students to
pursue space studies.
In response to the adverse reports,
Dr Sheikh Muszaphar, an orthopaedic
surgeon, has been quoted as saying he
had accepted contributions when he
spoke at events. However, he denied
allegations that he had received up Datuk Dr Sheikh
to RM8,000 an hour for the lectures. Muszaphar
– Bernama