KUALA LUMPUR: The Govt has decided to defer the purchase of the Cougar. See story below. It may be prudent but Malaysian Defence hopes that the Nuri maintainance and over haul budget will be increased.
Helicopter Purchase On Hold
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28 (Bernama) — The purchase of Eurocopter helicopters have been deferred until world economy stabilise, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday.
— BERNAMA
— Malaysian Defence
i think last 2 weeks the gov say our economy didn’t effect by the world economy crisis right now.how come our economy right now not stable?
Marhalim: When the commodity prices were also hit by the economic crisis. Now we cannot even sell our palm oil overseas as banks wont offer Letter of Credit to the companies that are exporting them, so we cannot sell them unless they are paid up front. We also need to issue a Letter of Credit to Eurocopter if we had continue with the procurement, I guess no banks would also issue any Letter of Credit for the purchase, my guess that within the next few months no one will issue Letter of Credits, so trade will basically shut down. Although I against the idea of shelving the deal unless the economy turned bad, it appears that the contagion effect is much worse than expected.
My guess is that the 2009 budget, which was a record $$$ high, was based on an estimate of high global oil prices. Now oil prices have fallen nearly half. Lower global oil prices means lower Petronas profits and lower tax revenue to the gomen. Petronas is the biggest taxpayer in this country. If this condition persists to 2009, our tax revenues for next year will also shrink considerably. Meaning the budget will be koyak and a lot of projects will have to be deferred.
Marhalim: Coupled with the incredible drop in palm oil and rubber prices, this may yet be worse than 1997-1999. Back then we were exporting ourselves out of trouble, now we cannot even export….
Based on comments by Najib, I believed he did not agree with the decision to shelve the project. Well, since he had been the Defence Minister, about 15 years within the last two decades, he must be intimate with the condition of the Nuri and more importantly whether or not any more delays to replace the fleet would caused major consequences.
Based on what he said, I guess he does, even with the economic crisis that the Nuri fleet need to be replaced ASAP.
However, I believe he would defer the plans at least until March next year when he is supposed to take over as PM.
What a load of rubbish. The spotlight got shone on the deal and the rats all scurried for cover. Lie low until the heat is off and then quietly sneak the project under the radar. Stealth procurement…..
Malaysian government can certainly find the money for this if it wanted to, why they found 5 billion to bail out their cronies in the KLSE through Valecap. Banks are still issuing LCs, they’re just charging more. This is the gomen buying stuff la, can always get LC. Surely CIMB or Maybank (who have sooo much dough) will oblige. After all both have benefited from National Interest.
They can cut a few of the stupid corridor projects which are nothing more than idiotic real estate scams like Cyberjaya. Unfortunately, ramai Kontraktor bertali who happen to belong to a certain political party are counting on these corridors to nowhere for their revenue stream.
I propose that henceforth, the Cabinet MUST fly Nuris if they are travelling by helicopter so that they share the in the risk of their decision. The two Blackhawks can be refitted for SAR…:).
Pak lah has the leadership qualities of a potato. While he jets about on taxpayers expense, he tells us, no money. **** dia.
And Pak Lah today had the temerity to call on soldiers to master sophisticated weapons. The only problem is that we do not have sophisticated weapons to begin with…..
Or the training to master what we have because ops budget is being squeezed.
A really shitty week for Eurocopter, the PDRM deal also ‘on hold’.
both the OE (ops expenditure) n DE(development expn) squeezed oredi right? since august..
all the big programmes on hold.NCW la ,ini la itu la…
that AI oso quite stupid, what is the use of STRIDE b4 procurement?
owh, the STRIDE wujud after he’s out of the gomen…takkan die tak tau before procurement, pasti lalu STRIDE dulu?
Marhalim: In some countries, after the services list out their requirements, the RD division will go through it and if it does not pass the standards, it will not be passed for tender. Our STRIDE are not like that however, procurement decisions and specifications remained the purview of the services. Honestly they seemed clueless or was it done that purposely that way? The latter is most likely…