Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani said he had not seen any foreign investors pulling out.
“In terms of foreign direct investments, if you compare last year and this year, it will drop a little but that is expected because the global economy has slowed down,” he was quoted as saying by the Sun Daily.
Johari said the sale of 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s power assets under Edra Global Energy Bhd to China General Nuclear Power Corp and the joint venture with Iskandar Waterfront Holdings and China Railway Group Ltd to develop Bandar Malaysia were signs of investor confidence in Malaysia.
“In fact, that (sale of power assets) is positive to the country because that shows confidence from foreign investors; they are willing to come here and invest close to about RM17 billion.”
The DoJ has filed a suit seeking to seize about USD1 billion in assets from several individuals, including Jho Low and Prime Minister Najib Razak’s stepson Riza Aziz. It said the assets had been bought with money misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
On the forthcoming Budget, Johari said the Government, which lost about RM30 billion in oil and gas revenue due to the slump in prices, is seeking ways to stimulate the economy.
He added that the Government had to be mindful of whatever it did and to consider its revenue-making ability.
“This is where we need to strike a balance. In any budget, at the end of the day, we need to look at what will be our estimate on our revenue. From there we work out how we are going to spend the money,” Johari told reporters at a press conference after the 31st National Economic Briefing yesterday.
The Sun Daily quoted him as saying that information and feedback on discussions would be given to the prime minister, who will announce the strategies at the presentation of Budget 2017 in October.
He declined to elaborate on the specific areas targeted as the Government is still engaging with some focus groups.
The loss of revenue from the oil and gas sector is expected to affect the Government’s spending power.
“We have lost about RM30 billion of our revenue from this sector. To a certain extent it will affect us in terms of our ability to spend money on the rakyat, infrastructure and so on because it is a huge amount. Nevertheless, our economy is well diversified and we’re not relying only on oil and gas,” Johari was quoted as saying.
He highlighted the need to reduce reliance on foreign workers, especially in the services sector such as hotels, malls and restaurants.
He said these businesses could reduce reliance on foreign workers by offering reasonable salaries and increasing prices, and emphasised the need to continue increasing the minimum wage.