SEBERANG PERAI, Nov 2 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said it is time for the government to build its own expertise and professionalism instead of relying on foreign experts.

He said a lot of government departments and ministries depended on foreign experts.

"This is not an issue but sometimes because of our dependence on foreign experts, we become weak, untrained, so we cannot continue to depend on foreign experts,” he said in his speech at the launch of the Department of Statistics Malaysia 75th anniversary celebrations here.

He said there is much to be learnt from the experience of DOSM that can produce data at national, state and even district levels.

"They are producing granular data and they have built their own expertise,” he said.

He said the best training was given to those responsible to provide the best data for the sake of the country and the people.

"Data on the level of the people’s health, the infrastructure, the education, the people’s abilities, we need these to better plan and allocate funding,” he said.

He said the level of professionalism and the integrity of the data must be the best.

He said the integrity of data is important as it could help the government to manage its expenditure.

"Foreign economists and studies in several conferences have revealed Malaysia as the country with the lowest tax base but with the highest subsidies being given in Asia,” he said.

"It is good that our subsidy is the highest but without good data, we will find there are leakages in the subsidies and these leakages must be managed,” he added.

He said the leakages must be managed otherwise the country will continue to incur large expenses without any of it reaching the intended group.

He said the total allocations for farmers and the low income group along with subsidies for the people comes up to a large amount.

He said this is why data and statistics are needed for the government to better plan its expenditure.

Meanwhile, Anwar said he is waiting for the Agriculture Census 2024 to be issued by DOSM.

"The summary of the census will assist us in coming up with an agricultural policy that can safeguard our food security,” he said.

He said the census will also reveal the number of farmers and fishermen in the country so that the government could target assistance for this group.

He also congratulated DOSM on its professionalism and hoped that they continue to step up efforts in improving their expertise.

"Continue to work hard in November and December to produce reports and presentations for Asean meetings next year so that our data will be among the best in the region,” he said.