The Prime Minister, YAB Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was today given an update on the progress of the Government Linked Companies (“GLC”) Transformation Program by the Putrajaya Committee on GLC High Performance (“PCG”) and launched two major initiative books under the GLC Transformation Program. The launch of the Green Book on Board Effectiveness and the Red Book on GLC Procurement Guideline and Best Practices marks another major milestone of the GLC Transformation Program.

The Prime Minister was pleased with the progress made and he reaffirmed the Government’s strong support to this program, which is one of the key policies of his administration. Indeed YAB Prime Minister highlighted that the GLC Transformation Programme is an integral part of the National Mission outlined in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (“RMK9”). In order to move the economy up the value chain, which is the first major thrust of RMK9, there is a great need to inculcate a culture of high performance and excellence in both the public and private sectors and the GLC Transformation Program is a key enabler in this regard.

He added that the Government remains committed to the GLC Transformation Program, and hopes that the PCG will continue to program manage, track and monitor the progress against the timeline set out in the GLC Transformation Manual.

At the GLC Transformation Update session, the PCG, chaired by Second Finance Minister YB Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, reported to YAB Prime Minister on the progress of the program.

The Transformation of GLCs continues to gain momentum with the launch of these two key initiative books on Enhancing Board Effectiveness (Green Book) and Procurement (Red Book) and caps a busy nine month period of activity in rolling-out the transformation program which began with the launch of the Transformation Manual by YAB Prime Minster in July 2005. Since then various initiatives have been put in place, including the launch of the Blue Book on Performance Management, the establishment of the Transformation Management Office (“TMO”) and the announcement of headline Key Performance Indicators (“KPIs”) by 15 key GLCs.

The PCG also highlighted that in the period since the inception of the GLC Transformation Program on 14th May 2004, the 23 GLCs which are constituents of the KLCI 100-stock index on Bursa Malaysia has registered a total shareholder return (“TSR”) of 33.9% as well as outperforming the overall index (excluding the GLCs) by 11.2% points. Annualised, this represents a total shareholder return of 15.9% per annum, outperforming the broader KLCI ex-GLCs TSR of 12.1%.

Overall, notwithstanding that 2005 and 2006 are transition years involving restructuring of legacy issues and mobilization of the Transformation Program, the PCG reported that good progress has been achieved with many GLCs having reported various quick wins in their transformation efforts. However the PCG also noted that there remains much to be done and the focus going forward will be on executing and implementing the program.