No 1. I hope those of you who are above 30 years old can recall this old story from 2010. At that time Tan Sri Muhyiddin was the DPM :
M'SIA did not engage with Indon billionaires admitted DPM Muhyiddin
efforts would be intensified to attract republic’s billionaires to invest here
special attention would be given to Indon’s billionaire investors
very little investments by the Indonesians
Cabinet had tasked him with responsibility of rectifying situation
My comments: This needs some clarification. Large Indonesian 'businesses' have long invested in Malaysia. As a banker in the 1990s I dealt with at least three of them ie the Salim group, the Gunawan group and one more Tamil group (forget their name). Bapak Gunawan built a steel plant here. These were all Indonesian Chinese businesses. Plus that Indian group.
The above news from 2010 about DPM Muhyiddin wanting to attract Indonesian billionaires refers to Indonesian pribumi businessmen. Orang Islam. There was a race and religion angle. It did not happen. None of those pribumi Indonesians invested money here (or not to my knowledge).
No. 2 Here is more religion slanted investment planning, this time more recent :
My Comments : This was that Pis fellow who boasted that he could bring in RM82 billion investments from Turkey. Dont know how he came up with such a number RM82 billion? It was about 25% of our annual Budget. Perhaps he should have just made it an even RM100 billion.
But nothing came out of it. Kosong. The Turks were and still are having serious economic and financial difficulties. Plus the Turks are not big players in FDI overseas.
No. 3 Here is the latest news from yesterday :
- 23 Mar 2023
- JEDDAH - called on Saudi to invest more in M'sia
- now M'sia under very stable govt with clear policies
- easier to do business with Madani agenda
- digital technology, food security, infrastructure
- look forward to your active participation in M'sia
My Comments:
The Arabs have zero technology, and I seriously doubt they have money either. But here is a question - if you walk into a supermarket, other than dried dates and figs what other products are sold here (or anywhere else in the world) by Arabs like the Saudis?
Yes they have invested into petrochemicals and refineries in Pengerang but the technology is from all over the world.
They do not make motorcars or machinery or airplanes. They certainly have no IT or AI. As I said they do not have technology.
So what is the big deal in dragging an investment delegation to Saudi Arabia at the taxpayers' expense? No firm investment deals have been signed.
The real foreign investors are in China. Japan too. Also places like Taiwan and Singapore. Lets not forget Europe and the US.
Top sources of FDI outflows worldwide were the People’s Republic of China (hereafter ‘China’) (USD 90 billion), Japan (USD 40 billion) and United States (USD 66 billion).
That is from some OECD website. No mention of Saudi Arabia or Turkey.
So why not organise an investment mission to China or Japan? I am sure they must have halal food available too.
So what is the purpose in going to Saudi Arabia?
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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