The reserve now looks respectable ...

BNM's Forex Reserve as at 15th Feb. 2008 has reached RM 366 billion or USD 110 billion. This is quite a substantial jump from a month ago. According to BNM, this amount of reserve is sufficient to sustain 9.2 months of import or 6.5 times the country's short term external debts. Crude oil and palm oil must be responsible for this increase in BNM's reserve.

Will BNM overtake MAS with USD 168 billion ? If the pace of the Malaysian economy is constant, BNM will catch up with MAS unless someone up there start squandering.

We should compare ....

Someone recently said that it was not fair to compare Malaysia with Singapore. He continued saying how can anyone compare first class grapes with first class apples. How can anyone compare a nation of 20 million (it should be 25 million actually ) people with one of one-fifth of the other's population. 

I like to compare Malaysia with Singapore. For one, Singapore's standard of living was about the same as Malaysia's (or Malaya as it was called) in the 1940's and 1950's and even in the 1960's. The Malayan dollar and Singapore dollar was interchangeable as they were at par with one another. From the 1970's there was a slight change in the parity when the Malaysian Ringgit started losing out gradually to the Singapore dollar. From that time on, the Sing $ left the MYR trailing behind until now when it takes 2.30 MYR to buy one Sing $, the same as it took 2.30 MYR to buy one USD in the 1980's. 

For another, if I want to go to town from Changi Airport, all I need do is to go to the taxi stand to queue for taxis and invariably I find an old man ushering me to take a taxi that comes along and the taxi driver will take me to anywhere in town on metered fare plus 3.00 S$ airport tax. But at KLIA (or Subang airport then), I will be confronted with well-dressed touts offering taxi service at an outrageous price to my destination. If I declined the tout's offer I can get the taxi service from taxi service provider who has a monopoly on taxi service from KLIA. Taxis that are not owned by the provider are prohibited from taking passengers from the arrival area.

Yet for another, I find it cheaper to buy electronic goods in Singapore ( in spite of the exchange rate ) than in Malaysia (in spite of the duty free tag). And if I go to Mustapha Mohamad, the goods for sale are unbelievably cheap if compared with those in KL's dept. stores. The only thing that I dare not buy in Singapore is a Rolex watch for which no watch dealers ever display it with a price tag.

Sure, I like to compare Malaysia with Singapore in many things - some good, some bad, and some neutral.