PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak shouldn’t take credit for Malaysia’s investment and trade performance over the past 10 years, International Trade and Industry (MITI) Deputy Minister Ong Kian Ming said today.
If anyone should take credit, it should be the hard-working civil servants at MITI, the Malaysia Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade), in their efforts to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FD) and to promote external trade, he said.
“I feel sorry for Najib, who has taken on the new role of being Barisan Nasional’s (BN) No. 1 internet troll. His latest pathetic attempt is to try to take credit for Malaysia’s investment and trade performance over the past 10 years,” Ong said in a statement.
“Many of the characteristics which makes Malaysia an attractive investment destination and an economy which is open to trade and business such the establishment of the rule of law to protect investors, infrastructure investments to improve our connectivity and trade liberalisation were already put in place by his predecessors including during Tun Dr. Mahathir’s first stint as prime minister.”
Growth in total trade after the 14th General Election from May to November 2018 was 7.0% which is higher than Jan to April in 2017 which was 4.7%, Ong pointed out.
Similarly, it is not to say as if Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) applications in the manufacturing sector stopped once Najib was no longer prime minister, he said.
“From the months from May to September 2018, which is after GE14, the approved manufacturing investments increased to RM35 billion compared to RM7.3 billion during the same time period in 2017,” Ong said.
“The increase in approved FDI in the manufacturing sector gives a hint as to how much more FDI we would have been able to attract if Malaysia did not have the scandal of 1MDB hanging over the heads of the investors as they pondered whether or not this scandal would affect the investment climate in Malaysia.”
Instead of taking credit, Najib should thank the two previous and longest serving Ministers of International Trade and Industry (MITI) who emphasized a high level of professionalism and put in place investor friendly policies – Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz (MITI Minister from 1997 to 2008) and Datuk Mustapa Mohamed (MITI Minister from 2009 to 2018).
“He should also take note that Rafidah left Umno before GE14 and actively campaigned against Najib personally during the recent general elections and Mustapa left Umno after GE14 and has since joined Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia,” Ong said.
