KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — The Cabinet will decide on follow-up measures including the need to establish a committee to monitor investments from China, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today.
He said the follow-up measures will be discussed in tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting.
So far, investments and projects from China are monitored by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) and by the Chinese government under the supervision of Prime Minister Li Qiang which will be implemented at the end of this year or early next year at the latest.
“We also have the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) and the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) which are able to organise because the preparations made by the Foreign Ministry, Miti and the officers are very satisfactory, enabling us to achieve the expected performance,” Anwar said while replying to an additional question from Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun regarding the establishment of a special committee to monitor investments from China in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Earlier, Anwar stated the positive results of his recent maiden visit to China in terms of economic and investment opportunities, including an investment commitment of RM170 billion obtained from the visit.
Anwar said several memorandums of understanding were signed during the visit including 12 in the service sector, 11 in the manufacturing sector and four in the infrastructure sector.
Meanwhile, Anwar said that there is no reason for a country like Malaysia to continue to depend on the US dollar in attracting investments into the country.
He said negotiations between Malaysia and other countries should use the currencies of both countries. According to him, Bank Negara Malaysia has also made a proposal to pioneer the said method in matters of trade during visits to China using ringgit and renminbi.
“A more important matter is about the Asian Monetary Fund and the initial stage that I had proposed as the Finance Minister which was not well received in Asia because at that time the US dollar was very strong.
“But now with the economic strength of China, Japan and so on, I think this proposal should be negotiated at least about the Asian Monetary Fund and can utilise the ringgit and the country’s currency accordingly,” he said in reply to an additional question from Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran on whether the government will join most countries that no longer want to use the US dollar in trade transactions.
— Bernama
