KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is set to announce a major investment from the Middle East today which will help burnish his administration's record in attracting foreign capital.
Najib says that foreign investment in Malaysia has "nosedived" this year due to the global economic slowdown.
"We have to look at ways to attract foreign capital and will announce something very major from the Middle East tomorrow," he told Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine in an open dialogue session at the Forbes CEO Conference here last night.
He added that he is also looking to integrate better with the Chinese economy and he will also make a visit to India to strengthen ties early next year.
Najib had earlier this year selectively lifted ethnic quotas in the financial and services sectors in a bid to attract more inflows of foreign capital.
"We want others to view us as a gateway to China, India and the Middle East and we are also part of Asean and the Malay world," said Najib. "Asean alone will be a business common community by 2015 and there will be free flow of goods, services and people. At the same time, due to historical legacy, we are quite comfortable dealing with the west."
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They still got money meh?
Anyway, I wonder if all this Middle East money is clean or is Malaysia being used a laundry mat?