KUALA LUMPUR: The government should encourage domestic investment and stop relying on foreign direct investment (FDI) to move the economy, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said the government should emulate countries such as Japan, South Korea and China.
He pointed out that they have become very successful nations by focusing on domestic investments instead of FDI.
He said the government must review its policy with regards to FDI.
“FDI cannot turn us into a successful industrial nation. Countries like Japan, South Korea and China took control of the technology and created their own products which they marketed for both the local and international markets.
“This is the reason why they are ahead of us. We are too dependent on FDI which is why we are unable to catch up with them. The time has come for us to try a different method,” Mahathir (Ind-Langkawi) said in his speech when debating the International Trade and Industry Ministry’s budget allocation.
Mahathir asked if the ministry and the government still wanted to prioritise FDI instead developing our industries.
He said we have assets such as rubber, palm oil and sand that we can market domestically and internationally.
He said the government needs to put in a huge effort to market local products on the international stage.
He said selling local products domestically alone will not help the country become one of the top industrial nations in the world.
Mahathir cited the glove industry as an example which can be used as a benchmark to develop local industries to meet local and international demand.
He said the government must be willing to change its policy and focus on both markets.
“Maybe then our other local industries can be as successful as our glove industry,” he said.
The RM1.2 billion allocation for the ministry was passed after the opposition narrowly failed to stop it following a bloc vote.
The allocation was passed with 110 MPs voting in favour and 104 against it.
Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun announced that six MPs were not present during the voting process.
The bloc voting was held under a new system that Azhar implemented to prevent a repeat of the miscount last week, in which he instructed those taking attendance on each side to be monitored by another lawmaker opposite them.
Last week, Datuk Shabudin Yahaya (BN-Tasek Gelugor) had wrongly included Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz (BN-Padang Rengas) in the list of those supporting the Finance Ministry’s budget at the committee stage, when he was not present in the house.
International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali in his winding-up speech came under attack from former finance minister Lim Guan Eng (PH-Bagan).
Lim said the RM25 million addition to the ministry’s allocation to host the Asia Pacific Economic Council (Apec) 2020 was too high.
He said the RM350 million previously approved was sufficient since the event was held online.
Azmin said the original budget approved in 2018 had been RM635 million, but it was reduced last year.
He said funds were used for 104 APEC-related meetings that started with Mahathir’s meeting in Langkawi in 2019.
He said the rest was spent on branding and services for the conference.
Azmin said the ministry spent RM66.6 million while the remaining RM233.4 million was returned to the Finance Ministry for use in its Covid-19 stimulus packages.
Lim disagreed and insisted the figure was too high, prompting Azhar to call for a bloc vote.
This is the fourth time that opposition lawmakers have failed to vote down allocations proposed under the Budget, with the first being the RM6.947 billion allocation for the Prime Minister’s Department, RM35.1 billion for the Finance Ministry, and RM476.67 million for the Plantation and Commodities Ministry.
