Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said today history will show that the shameful, politically-motivated allegations on 1MDB made to unseat the government are false.
What will be remembered as the real legacy of 1MDB will be its assets, including Tun Razak Exchange and Bandar Malaysia, he said.
“In the years to come, they will be the real legacy of 1MDB. They will be what is remembered," Najib told the business community at the Invest Malaysia 2016 event in Kuala Lumpur.
“The Public Accounts Committee (PAC ) has identified weaknesses in 1MDB's structure and management, and I said last week we must ensure that lessons are learned ” he added.
“The report shows that RM42 billion going missing, as some claimed, is false. Completely false.
“Malaysia's name has been unfairly dragged through the mud. There has been, and will be, accountability, " Najib stressed.
He then said the government has proved the sceptics wrong and it's time to move on.
"Now is the time to move on, and to refocus on further strengthening Malaysia's economy and on the good news about our country," Najib said.
"The reality is that there is a rationalisation process, and it is working," he added.
"Substantial debts (of 1MDB) have been cleared, including the recent payment of a RM950 million standby credit facility provided by the government last year," he said.
Vibrant new centres
Najib also argued that 1MDB has more assets that liabilities, and those assets are real, as can be seen by the price they are fetching.
"The results when these assets are put to use will be evident in the future, when two vibrant new centres will spring up in Kuala Lumpur – at the Tun Razak Exchange and Bandar Malaysia," he said.
Najib, who is also the Umno president, however, did not reveal the latest figures of 1MDB's debts and assets.
In its finding on 1MDB's probe, PAC held 1MDB's ex-CEO Shahrol Halmi and other management responsible for the weaknesses and constraints faced by the state-owned firm.
BN leaders had claimed the report cleared Najib, while PAC member Tony Pua argued that the report did not clear the prime minister.
Pua said this was because 1MDB declined to submit the documents of its overseas cash flows and assets totalling US$7 billion (about RM28 billion).
In its report, PAC noted that 1MDB's debt has snowballed to RM50 billion as of January 2016, while its assets were worth only RM53 billion during the same period.
It also noted that 1MDB has to pay RM3.3 billion in debt interest in 2016. -Mkini
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