We cannot continue to depend on foreign investors, says Mahathir

 

Malaysia must target industrial production for the world market, says Dr Mahathir. (Reuters pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia cannot be too dependent on foreign direct investment if it wants to achieve developed nation status, according to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said the country needed to be in control of technology and targeting industrial production for the global market such as being done by other Asian countries including China, Japan and South Korea.

“We (Malaysia) depend on foreign investors, (they) build factories which do not belong to us (Malaysia). All profits are repatriated (to their countries) and we (Malaysia) do not get the technology completely,” he said at an online forum organised by the National Professors Council.

He said South Korea is now the manufacturer of the world’s biggest ships after becoming aware that there was demand in the world market.

Professor Raduan Che Rose, head of the professors’ council, said his research on the transfer of technology by multinational companies in Malaysia showed that the country was being used more as a production plant.

“All the research, strategic matters remain with the respective countries. The mistake was perhaps in the early stages before, when we were desperate to create jobs at the manual level,” he said. - FMT