Nor Mohamed Yakcop


Nor Mohamed bin Yakcop is a Malaysian politician who served as Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, in charge of Economic Planning Unit from 2009 to 2013. He had previously served as Minister of Finance II from 2004 to 2009. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Advisory Council.

Career

He served with Bank Negara, the Malaysian central bank from 1968 to 2000. During his time in Bank Negara he was responsible for the implementation of a number of major projects, including
  • the implementation of Islamic banking in Malaysia
  • the setting-up of the bilateral payments mechanism between Bank Negara Malaysia and Central Banks of South-South countries
  • the setting-up of the Rating Agency Malaysia Berhad.
He was also involved in a currency speculation scandal in the early 1990s, where Bank Negara lost up to RM30 billion. No action was taken as he moved on to hold important government positions.
Yakcop was the Special Economic Adviser to former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
In 2002, he was appointed the director of Khazanah Nasional. He played a major role in government-linked companies like United Engineers Malaysia Berhad and Malaysia Airlines. The transformation of the GLCs was something he led on. Following the Asian financial crisis many of the GLCs were mired in debt and rudderless.
Yakcop restored their balance sheets using the Government's sovereign guarantee when necessary to cut down their borrowing costs. He installed new managers in the GLCs, giving them wide latitude to run the corporations honestly. To ensure that they delivered, he introduced key performance indicators and service contracts.
He was a member of the Dewan Negara, the upper house of the Parliament of Malaysia, for two terms before stepping down to run for the Tasek Gelugor parliamentary constituency in Penang in the Malaysian elections on 8 March 2008.

Personal life

He was a student of St. Xavier's Institution in Penang and served as a prefect during his student days.
He is married to Puan Sri Fawziah Begum Abu Bakar, a former welfare officer. The couple have three children.

Honours

Honours of Malaysia