Muhyiddin: We made the mistale of taking billionaires for granted

Malaysia did not engage with Indonesian billionaires in recent years because they were “taken for granted”, admitted Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The Deputy Prime Minister said it was thought that Malaysia knew everything about Indonesian investors.

As such, he said efforts would be intensified to attract the republic’s billionaires to invest in Malaysia.

He said special attention would be given to Indonesia’s billionaire investors who had also shied away from Malaysia thinking that the country was not interested in them.

Due to this, Muhyiddin said there were very little investments by the Indonesians and the Cabinet had tasked him with the responsibility of rectifying the situation.

“Things are about to change as a group of billionaires have indicated their keen interest to invest in Malaysia. It was through casual meetings with them that we found out why Malaysia was not in their radar. They poured their hearts out to us,” he told Malaysian journalists at the end of his three-day official visit here.

The billionaires included the influential Chairul Tanjung who is also Indonesia’s national economic committee chairman and cigarette tycoon Budi Hartono, owner of Djarum Tobacco Company with total assets valued at US$4.8bil (RM15.84bil).

He said the billionaires sought for personal attention from the Malaysian Government.

“They want a person-to-person approach. I responded with an open invitation, and told them that should they have any problem, they could see me anytime. I think they got the message. Judging from their enthusiasm, it is just a matter of time before we see Indonesian investors flocking to Malaysia,” he said.

In Bogor, Muhyiddin said a thorough study was needed to look at the impact arising from Malaysians gambling in Singaporean casinos before any measure was introduced.

Personally, he said he would not encourage anyone to gamble in Malaysia or Singapore, adding: “We have to study this because we don’t want Singapore to say later that we are obstructing, preventing. We are part of Asean and Asean adopts a policy of free trade.

“There are other initiatives that we can implement ... Political parties may have a role to play in this matter,” he said, commenting on a proposal that the Government imposed a levy on Malaysians who gambled in the republic, to prevent outflow of funds from Malaysia.

- Star