SUNGAI PETANI: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said 2018 or the Year of the Dog in the Chinese calendar will be a great year for Malaysia.
He said contrary to opposition leaders' claim that the country is going bankrupt, Malaysia continue to record steady growth and the momentum is set to remain throughout the year.
"I am confident that this year will be a great year for our country's economic growth and this was backed by the positive outlook laid out by the economic analysts.
"As such, nobody should make baseless allegation that this country is going bankrupt.
"If that is the case, I would not have approved an allocation to upgrade the Langkawi International Airport and a RM1 billion allocation to upgrade five water treatment facilities in Kedah," Najib said in his speech at the national-level Chinese New Year open house organised by the Tourism Ministry here this evening.
Present were his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah, Tourism Ministry Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.
Najib said the federal government will continue to help the Kedah government to bring in more development into the state under Bashah's leadership.
"As the prime minister, I will always help Kedah to develop.
"For example, I remember when I came to Sungai Petani in the 80s, there was only one rest house here where we had a meeting but look at how Sungai Petani has developed now, this is the contribution made by Barisan Nasional," he said.
In his speech, Najib also reminded Malaysians that Bahasa Malaysia is the uniting factor that keeps the Malaysia's multi-racial communities as one.
He also said that to be strong, Malaysians should celebrate diversity.
"By opening our heart and mind to celebrate this diversity, we will emerge as an even stronger nation. Diversity should be celebrated as a strength, not a weakness," he said.
Meanwhile, in his welcoming speech, Ahmad Bashah approved RM240,000 allocation to build an open hall for SMK Bakar Arang following a request made by Linda Lee, representing the Sungai Petani community at the event.
Earlier at the event, Najib witnessed the presentation of Malaysia Book of Records on the biggest number of people or 1,148 participants taking part in baking of the "kuih kapit".
The project director Rosnan Nordin said participants took about 11 hours to complete the challenge, which began at 11am today.