NEW YORK, September 26 – Putting aside his prepared speeches, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak became Malaysia’s number one salesman in promoting the country to American fund managers, investors and business leaders here.
The prime minister had back-to-back meetings as well as a working luncheon with them on Thursday. He first met 15 fund managers, who manage funds worth some US$8 trillion (RM25.6 trillion) worldwide, and then investors and business leaders.
In attracting them to invest and do business in Malaysia, Najib outlined the political stability and sound economy as among the main attractions. He highlighted Malaysia’s recent international rankings — sixth for ease of doing business by the World Bank, 20th for world competitiveness by the World Economic Forum and third best emerging market by Bloomberg.
“These indicate the country’s good governance and delivery system,” Najib said, adding that Malaysia is a business-friendly nation whose economic growth of 5.6 per cent last year and 6.3 per cent for the first half of this year speaks well of its economic health.
Najib pointed to the vast business opportunities in Malaysia especially in innovation and technology as the country moves towards a high-income nation by 2020. Malaysia should also be seen as a gateway to the Asean market with a population of 600 million people, he said, while highlighting the country’s prudent spending and its efforts to deal with the current fiscal deficit.
He said the government has had to make some difficult decisions such as subsidy rationalisation and introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) next year for the benefit of the people and the country in the long run.
“We don’t want to be a populist government that makes the wrong decisions,” he said. Speaking to reporters after meeting the fund managers, Najib said they liked Malaysia’s story.
“I think they want some specific commitment from our side whether we have the political will to continue with the reform to ensure fiscal sustainability and to continue programmes such as the GTP and ETP as we march towards a high-income economy. “I think they were gauging the level of political will on promises that we have made. I think they know our policies but just want to gauge the level.
“They want to see whether I have the political will to deliver. That’s how I see it,” said Najib. The prime minister is in New York from Sept 20 to 28 to attend the United Nations General Assembly as well as other engagements with the business community and the Malaysian diaspora.
– BERNAMA
