An aide to International Trade and Industry Minister Azmin Ali today came to his defence against criticisms over remarks about Malaysia being selective in accepting foreign direct investments (FDI).
Dr Afif Bahardin (above) in a statement lambasted former second finance minister Johari Abdul Ghani, who yesterday labelled Azmin's remarks as "nonsense".
The Seberang Jaya assemblyperson claimed that Johari was being "selective" in presenting facts about the country's economy to undermine the government's efforts to spur economic activities in the country.
"According to the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development report, the international direct investment flows have recorded a 42 percent decrease from US$1.5 trillion in 2019 to US$859 billion in 2020.
"However, the country's foreign investment performance has to be looked at from the country's ability to attract FDI. The gross FDI inflows show that there is a 5.8 percent increase to RM108.3 billion between January and September 2020, despite the country facing a very challenging global economic environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The performance improvement mirrors 4,599 high impact investment projects that have been approved in the industrial and service sectors, with a total investment amount of RM164 billion in 2020.
"He (Johari) had quoted figures and statistics that are not thorough, and being selective with the intention to undermine efforts taken by the Perikatan Nasional government, especially through the International Trade and Industries Ministry under the leadership of Azmin, to spur the country's trade and investment activities," said Afif.
Yesterday, Johari in his speech at the Umno general assembly in Kuala Lumpur had criticised Azmin, after the latter claimed that Malaysia was being more selective on foreign investments.
Azmin had said this during a press conference when he denied that the country was losing out on foreign investments from big multinational corporations to neighbouring countries.
On this, Afif, who is Bersatu information bureau deputy chief, questioned Johari if he would rather the country accept all kinds of foreign investments that do not have quality, and make the country a "dumping ground".
"Do we want to continue depending on foreign labours to explore investment projects that do not have high impact, like what happened during the BN era?
"I would like to advise him (Johari) not to continue his habit of lying and confusing the rakyat by sharing half-truths, and denying all efforts by the government to revive the country's investment performance and economic ecosystem, in facing the global economic challenge and Covid-19 pandemic crisis." - Mkini
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