SHAH ALAM, 2 Dec: The salary increase for Members of the State Legislative Assembly (Assemblymen), Speaker and Excos, is in line with the ‘Value for Money’ policy adopted by the state government all this while.

The Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, said that the increase also enables them to fully concentrate and to carry out their duties well without doing other work to support their needs.

He said that sometimes, Assemblymen cannot rid themselves of financial problems in addition to facing huge burdens.

“The government’s transparency strategy is to provide adequate income, which is value for money for Assemblymen, and if they are paid lowly, the policy is incorrect.

“We say that the state budget is based on the value for money concept but do not do what is outlined (if there is no increase in salary),” he said.

The Selangor State Assembly (DNS) approved the salary increase for 56 of its members which will come into force in January 2014, with the Deputy Speaker getting the highest increase of 373.3 percent, which was announced on 28 November.

Earlier, he answered questions from Lee Chin Cheh (DAP-Kajang) regarding the status of Selangor’s main economic activities.

Abdul Khalid (PKR-Port Klang) said that the largest economic activity in Selangor depends on the area of services compared to previously involving the industrial sector.

The current industrial sector only contributes 40 percent compared to services, which now account for contributing 58 percent.

“The growth of the industrial sector is quite moderate because the global economic movement is rather slow, especially in Europe and the United States.

“Among the contributors in the services sector are utilities and transportation (17.3 percent), retail and labour trade (18 percent), finance, insurance and real estate (20 percent),” he said.