The Malaysian Insight

PRIME Minister Najib Razak remains confident and adamant that his “open door” policy in welcoming foreign investors, including China, will help to boost Malaysia’s economy.

In welcoming the establishment of the first branch of China Construction Bank in Malaysia this morning, Najib in his officiatiang speech said it was foolish to turn away investments from other countries as it was for the interest of Malaysians and business partners abroad.

“Be it from Japan or China, India or Saudi Arabia, to turn away these investments out of a narrow and foolish belief – and a fundamental misunderstanding of economics – would only be bad for the country,” he said.

He also lashed out at opposition politicians including his number one critic former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has accused him of compromising the country’s sovereignity, saying that cooperating with China will create real and transformative results that benefit the people.

“These relations do not compromise sovereignty one bit, contrary to what opposition politicians here have said. I will never sell Malaysia’s sovereignty. Never.”

He also told his critics that campaigning against foreign investments is akin to delaying Malaysia’s development.

“To those critics who say “too much, too fast, too soon”, I say this: If you want to delay Malaysia’s development, if you want Malaysia to fall behind, and if you don’t want jobs to be created or levels of income to rise, then you go and campaign on that platform.

“I will never apologise for facilitating investment in Malaysia. These ventures are for the interest of all, of the Rakyat here in Malaysia and for our partners from abroad,” he said.

He was speaking at the grand opening of China Construction Bank, the first foreign commercial bank to be granted a banking licence to operate in Malaysia in the last six years.

China Construction Bank’s opening is timely with the rise in the number of China-Malaysia mega projects recently.

Among them are 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s mega project Bandar Malaysia, Forest City in Johor, East Coast Rail Line and China funded ports across the country.

Dr Mahathir has been highly critical of these investments, likening them to “selling land to foreigners”.

Dr Mahathir had said that he was neither “anti-Chinese” nor against foreign direct investments but claimed that projects like Forest City might lead to foreign ownership of land and an influx of property buyers from China that could undermine Malaysia’s sovereignty in the long run.

“The Chinese are welcome to invest in industries in Malaysia. But just as we would not welcome mass immigration of Indians or Pakistanis or Europeans or Africans into Malaysia we have to adopt the same stance on Chinese immigration into Malaysia,” he said in his blog. – June 2, 2017.