Selangor is up in arms over the federal government’s apparent neglect of the state in the recently unveiled 10th Malaysia Plan, and instead concentrating on “Greater KL”.

“There is no such thing as ‘Greater KL’. There is only the Klang Valley,” said Khalid, during a briefing on the 10MP for state officials in Shah Alam today.

Elaborating, he said the 10MP document footnote states that “ Greater KL ” encompasses Petaling Jaya, Subang, Ampang Jaya and Shah Alam, which incidently describes the Klang Valley.

Conversely, he said the 10MP had used the term “Selangor” sparsely and only when it concerns statistics.

“Is the federal government trying to avoid using the word Selangor (and Klang Valley) for some reason?” asked Khalid.

Khalid added, that although only Selangor’s name rarely appeared in the 10MP, he is not suggesting that federal funds were being cut off to the state.

However,  he believes that it is still important to refer the area as “Klang Valley” because that was most appropriate.

'Bad record in privatisation'

In his speech, Khalid also criticised the privatisation plans spelled out in the 10MP because there had been numerous instances of failed privatisation projects.

"This is mainly because of weaknesses in the transfer of public funds and responsibilities to the corporate sector which failed to be efficient in their service," said Khalid, who made a play of the word and described it as “piratisation”.

He said that the proper procedure for privatisation of state services must be through open tenders instead of the current practice of mostly awarding contracts through direct negotiations which often involves grossly inflated costs.

Khalid adds that rightfully, the focus of privatisation drive should be to identify companies that is capable of maximising profits from privatisation projects, with the least amount of public funds spent.

"You privatise revenue (generating activities), then you award to the one who can give the higher return," he said.