Harakahdaily
PETALING JAYA, July 27: DAP economist Tony Pua has responded to CIMB chief Nazir Razak's claim that the plunge in foreign investment was not necessarily negative, saying Nazir should look into details provided by the UN's Foreign Investment Report (WIR) 2010 before giving his judgement on the country’s performance.
“Nazir should study this chart; (it) tells you that net negative investment flow is not 1-off but a clear-cut trend,” said Pua in a message on Twitter.
He was responding to media report quoting the top banker as saying it was not necessarily a bad thing to have lower net investment flow for the country, and urged that the 2009 plunge in Malaysia’s foreign direct investment be studied carefully before jumping to conclusions.
Nazir’s optimism was not shared by Pua, who said the data clearly showed that the trend of both local and foreign investors existing Malaysia for overseas was unmistakable as the country had been suffering from a steady outflow of FDI over the past decade based on the chart.
Pua, however, said Nazir was probably only responding to a question.
“To be fair, Nazir probably didn't see the full data. Bernama just asks him off the cuff,” wrote Pua, who is also the Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament.
Referring to the chart, Pua pointed out that not only foreign investors had been unwilling to invest in Malaysia, both local investors and foreign investors have a total lack of confidence in the ability of the country's economy to generate an attractive return for their investments.
This contributed to a decline in FDI from US$2.56 billion in 2004 and US$1.09 billion (2005), to a net negative US$0.02 billion (2006), negative US$2.7 billion (2007) and negative US$7.67 billion in 2008.
“The figures show clearly that there is money to be invested, they are just not investing in Malaysia. The investors now see improved and better opportunities in the region and abroad even during the times of crisis,” he said.
Pua also warned that if there were no necessary and critical changes to the Government's economic policies, the economy would continue to drift and shunned by local and foreign investors, while neighbouring countries would steadily improve their economies beyond the nation’s reach.
13 comments:
Nazir was asked the question in a conference and it was off the cuff. He knows the numbers are not good. But he also really damage his reputation for not really not keeping up with details of the net-flow numbers because we all know its been bad for a while now.
It is public knowledge that Nazir and Najib differ in their view of NEP and economic matters. But they are still brothers and its Nazir's interest to defend Malaysian economic where he derives most of his revenue.
Still Nazir, not keeping up with his homework. You know you are sitting in an ivory tower when you get details wrong..
Hi TONY,
Are you truly an "ECONOMIC EXPERT"? or merely trying to play-act as one???
No doubt, the recent FDI findings does sound ALARMING but the findings reflects on the entire nation. This mean if we dissect the entire FDI report into SMALLER PORTIONS via FDI statistics per STATE, wit's OBVIOUS to notice all States in MALAYSIA plays a part in this recent dip of our nation's FDI.
May I ask you which STATES in MALAYSIA are considered to be TARGET of FOREIGN INVESTORS??? I would assume you'll ANSWER (1) SELANGOR & (2) PENANG, correct???
May I ask further....."Which PARTY is the STATE GOVT. of these 2 said STATES??".
It's clear PAKATAN RAKYAT plays the MAJOR ROLE in the POOR SHOWING our our FDI findings. However, instead of undertaking the BLAME; PAKATAN RAKYAT is seen as PUSHING their fault to BARISAN NASIONAL of which is the Federal Govt. I view this kind of PATHETIC ACT as COWARDLY as a TORTOISE hiding in its' SHELL.
What have LIM GUAN ENG (CM of Penang) & KHALID IBRAHIM (MB of Selangor) been doing all these years??? Busy "MAKAN RASUAH"???. These 2 WANKERS is suppose to build the STATES & when the nation FDI drops, these 2 WANKERS ought to be BLAMED becos' they are the HEAD of the 2 MOST INDUSTRIOUS STATES in MALAYSIA.
Not unless we VOTE PAKATAN RAKYAT out from SELANGOR & PENANG in the next G.E., our country's FDI will DROP FURTHER. It's WRONG to BLAME the BN GOVT for the recent FDI dropping as BN only governs LOWER INDUSTRIOUS STATES. Where else, the 2 VITAL STATES led by Pakatan Rakyat are the main contributor to the recent failure of our FDI.
Guan Eng is SUCKING Penang dry, while KHALID IBRAHIM is depleting Selangor's wealth besides depleting SANDS too.
ALARMING!!! So, who would you BLAME now???
How about Penang FDI.
under new KM.???
So.
Dear YB Tony,
I wish to refer to Calvin Sankaran's article in Malaysian Insider 27.7.2010 disputing your critique of the UNCTAD figures on the sharp decline of FDI in Malaysia even below Philippines for the 1st time.
Calvin's defence is simplistic. He quotes MIDA figures of > USD4 billion for 2009. What he fails to understand is that MIDA often gives well massaged figures including those FDI "in the pipeline" in the form of MOUs or mere indication of intent to invest only. This figures are not reflective of reality. Investors may still be shopping for better destinations while window shopping here.
All these years we quoted UNCTAD figures unabashedly when FDI in Malaysia was impressive. But now that there is a 80% decline, Calvin seems to want to dispute the scientifically driven numbers by UNCTAD.
Hope this helps explain abit of Calvin's shallow analysis.
Matt Balan
Oh. Come on! Calvin Sankaran writing is intellectual porn and we all know it. What he don't get is you can't make money from any kind of online porn anymore.
PJU Voter
How to attract investments when the Federal Govt is bent on sabotaging those states?
hmm this jerry chin aka tokz aka PJU Voter seems to be blabbing a lot in other blogs as well with the same incoherent spin to the blog postings. i don't know the style but i have to admit it's kind of new and sad to say getting irritating. i don't wish to fall down the trap of commenting of what other people wish to voice out but ... just weird.
people are hearing you YB Tony, please keep up the good work. i hope you get kicks from revealing what's staring right at our face and not burned out by all these shenanigans otherwise the rakyat continues to suffer.
PJU voter
The main reasons why the FDI dropped are the biased policies and racial discriminations practised by BN which govern the Federal level all this while.Some more, I want to add things like corruption,'little-napolean' type of public officers also cause the slide of FDI. So what say you?
YB Tony,
Your 'buttressing' seems to be getting on the nerves of some people.
If not already, do check a personal letter to you at malaysiakini. Sad to say again, not worthy of your time, heh.
PJU Voter
my my... so passionate, your argument!!! you pose a really interesting opinion but what a leaping assumption to so quickly point the blame at political turmoil caused by PR. let us look at the numbers a bit closer. refer to the graph and you shall note that the decrease in net FDI started in 2004. 2007, however just marked the year where outflow exceeded in flows.
as for the governance over selangor and penang, BN lost it's hold on these two states in 2008. meaning to say, investors started pulling out even BEFORE pakatan took over the selangor and penang.
what say you?
Just to add to economic student's point - the plunge halted in 2008 and picked up in 2009
I guess BN and PR should be blame for the declining FDI. In the 90s the FDI was huge compared to other ASEAN countries because we have a stable and strong BN government lead by Dr. M. People work hard for the money. The cake was big enough for us to eat. Not many people complaint coz we are busy counting dollar and cents. Now we have double jeoapardy. While external economic factors affect our country, we have a weak BN plus corrupt and half past six PR
-awang
PJU Voter - the new administration in Penang is only one year old. The damage was done over the past decade.
Maybe a simple example will clear up your simple mind. Imagine I run a company called MY Bhd. I screwed it up royally and siphoned off all the cash over the past ten years. Once the balance sheet has shown negative equity (more liabilities than assets), I hand over the company for you to run. Now, suddenly the company goes bankrupt. Who is the culprit?
Faham?
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