To further reduce debt, govt may have to sell land, says PM

(NST) – After selling off superyacht Equanimity, the government is considering selling land to pare down its debt, but only to Malaysians, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

“We see a possibility of reducing debt through identifying government’s assets, which we can sell.

“In fact, we may, if necessary, sell land belonging to the government. But of course, we will (only) sell it to Malaysians and not foreigners.

“That will help (in our efforts) to reduce our (national) debt,” he told a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

Dr Mahathir said efforts were underway to reduce the government’s debt.

“At the moment, the process is still on-going. The debt is being lowered and efforts are being worked on all the time.”

Asked on the latest amount of debt, he replied; “I can’t give the exact figure but I believe it has been reduced quite considerably.”

Earlier, Dr Mahathir said the national debt is at a manageable level.

“It (the amount) has come down. The finance minister will know the exact figure.

“First, our economy has grown in the last one year, hence the debt owed by us has become smaller.

“Secondly, we have been able to recover quite a lot of money that was lost as well as those kept in Singapore.

“Thirdly, we were also working hard to reduce the contract value of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), because if we don’t continue with it, we will have to pay very huge compensation. So that is being managed.” he said.

Previously, it was reported that the government’s debt stood at RM1.087 trillion.

Yesterday, the Attorney-General Tommy Thomas announced that the Equanimity will be sold to Genting Malaysia Bhd or its special purpose vehicle (SPV) company at the price of US$126 million, ranking as the highest recovery to date for the Malaysian government from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.