KUALA LUMPUR: Rising living costs is one of the main concerns among the Chinese community, MCA President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said.
Other concerns include the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other taxation systems, he said in a dialogue and workshop on the 2018 Budget conducted by the party here.
Present were MCA leaders, Chinese community business owners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
"From my observations throughout the dialogue today, the greatest concern among the Chinese community is the rising living costs. This is something worrying and I am working to identify the issues
"There are a lot of factors that are influencing the rise in living cost, and I will try my best to address them," said Liow who is also Transport Minister after the dialogue session.
Liow said he had also been tasked by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to look into the bottleneck of the transportation system that is directly contributing to the high cost of good and services.
"The Prime minister had indicated for me to look into how we can work around the existing transportation system in order for it to function systematically thus helping to balance living costs.
"It was also because of our currency that was weak then, but now we are seeing an improvement," he explained.
He added that more focus will be placed on e-commerce as the country is moving towards a fast moving advancement in digitial technology.
"One of the things that I will help to push forward is to make available high speed Internet as soon as possible. We are moving fast, the world is moving fast, we need to keep up.
"This will be in support of the DFTZ (Digital Free Trade Zone) and I am sure we will be able to benefit fully once we are properly connected," he said and urged the public to not be influenced by negative input and feedback on the implementation of the GST.
"Don't blame the GST, Malaysia needs it. However the implemention and enforcement mechanisms may not be as smooth now therefore causing confusion and problems for consumers and business owners.
"Once these are smoothened out, you will be able to understand the reason for GST and its benefits will be visible," he said.