PUTRAJAYA: The Government’s debt situation may cause delays to fulfilling Pakatan Harapan’s election pledges, says Lim Guan Eng.

The Finance Minister said this included the Young Entrepre­neurs Empowerment Fund, which was one of the promises in Pakatan’s GE14 manifesto.

“We remain committed to implementing the promises in our manifesto, but as we have found out, our financial situation does not look promising.

“We are facing a RM1 trillion debt, so we need to stabilise our finances before we can implement our promises.

“Please give us some time,” said Lim at a question-and-answer session during the launch of the second cohort for Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centres Global Accelerator Prog­ramme here.

Lim, however, have given an assurance that Malaysia would be able to manage the financial situation, adding that the Government’s ability to abolish the Goods and Services Tax (GST), among others, is proof.

“We are able to abolish the GST, and we are still able to pay BR1M (1Malaysia People’s Aid), which we have renamed as Bantuan Sara Hidup (Cost of Living Aid), without going bankrupt.

“Give us some time to sort out our finances first before we go on and fulfil our other commitments,” said Lim.

At the launch of the event, Lim expressed the Government’s commitment to support social entrepreneurs, especially those who come up with initiatives that help alleviate poverty.

“This government believes in the rule of law.

“We believe that we should not only have freedom of speech, but also freedom after speech,” said Lim.

“Tolerance of new ideas is important.

“We will encourage new ideas, especially those that would help alleviate poverty in the country and uplift the living standards of the people.”