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"The 30 per cent Bumiputera equity ruling is part of the Government's efforts to narrow the economic divide between Bumiputera businessmen and their non-Bumiputera counterparts."

I think she meant Umnoputra instead of Bumiputera, must be a typo.

Rafidah latest outburst is akin to those statements made by Bolehland ministers: Nor Omar and Badruddin. It is like telling the foreign investors: "If you dont like it, please get out"

"We are not hiding anything and there are areas you can have 100 per cent equity, majority stake and 30 per cent Bumiputera stake ... those who have other feelings can go elsewhere,"
by Rafidah Aziz, MITI

"If foreigners think that Malaysia police are brutal, please go back to their own countries and not to stay here." by Nor Omar, ex-Deputy Internal Security Minister

"Malaysia Ini Negara Islam - You Tak Suka, You Keluar Dari Malaysia" by Dato' Paduka Haji Badruddin bin Amiruldin, Jerai MP

A shot in the foot using the mouth. Odd statement from the minister in charge of attracting FDIs, something which under the IMP is aimed to need RM400 billion, forming some 75% of the total investment required for the manufacturing sector by 2015.

Something is deeply wrong somewhere and Badawi's administration knows it.

If you want to create jobs for the jobless, raise productivity, earn more income in order to reduce state deficit and lighten the load of the tax-paying rakyat, FDIs are needed in a country like ours which is constantly emerging but never seem to have emerged.

This outburst just submerges everything instead.

It's stupid because it will stop any application for projects right at the doorstep before she has even seen them. People who have other equally attractive places to go will be cheesed off, and may just walk. It's not ok - simply because she won't know what will not be submitted. And those may be critical projects. Like biotech and nanotech and infotech and high-values and...

Let's see how the spinmeisters will say she has been misquoted. Too late - once it gets into lexisnexis,factiva, cnn and the foreign commercial commissions, they won't give a hoot to add any changes.

And the UPM mobs learnt it from them: "Tak suka, boleh balik" again.

Amcham says YES.

American-Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) adviser Nicholas Zeffreys said from foreign investors’ perspective, the Plan provided a sense of predictability and certainty.

"Amcham participated in the development of the IMP3. Now, we’ll wait and see the product (implementation of the IMP3)," he said after the launch of IMP3 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi here, yesterday.

Zeffreys said US companies were involved in all three pillars of the economy outlined by the Plan, namely manufacturing, services and agriculture.

On agriculture, he said, Amcham sought to increase the US-Malaysia trade in the sector.

Bloomberg says NO.

Record oil prices are weighing on Malaysia's $131 billion economy, slamming consumer and business confidence. Add to that a slowing U.S. economy and concern about the nation's ability to compete with Asia's upstarts. Malaysia may be too affluent to outperform China; too underdeveloped to join the ranks of Japan or South Korea. It also has a public-relations weakness.

That became clear in interviews with investors in the U.S. and Europe over the last couple of months. There was, of course, huge interest in China and India. Yet in cities like London, New York and Stockholm, I found great interest in economies such as Thailand and Taiwan. In Chicago, Paris and Lisbon, folks wanted to talk about Korea, Singapore and Vietnam. In Brussels, San Francisco and Washington, it was Indonesia and Japan.

I say GRAVY TRAIN (well, SIL actually said that once, remember?)

It is almost the same set of people in the current administration and the previous.

Why did they suddenly turned so 'extreme'? I am really worried for Malaysia if this continues.

Indonesia is expected to chalk up economic growth of 6.7% compared to M'sia's expected 5.3%? Next year, Indonesia is expecting 10.3% against M'sia of 5% plus?

How did it become like this?

Judging from this article, Rafidah should know. Malaysia comes in 4th in ASEAN FDI behind Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand.

From
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060821/kyodo/d8jkltg80.html

"Foreign direct investment in Southeast Asia jumped 48 percent in 2005 to $38 billion and is set to keep growing, Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz said Monday.The FDI flow into ASEAN, however, is still far behind those that into China, which in recent years has managed to attract an average of $50 billion annually... But there is a wide disparity among the recipients of the FDI. Singapore took in $20 billion of the total FDI, Indonesia received $6 billion, Thailand had $4 billion and Malaysia was close behind with $3.9 billion. The rest was shared between the remaining six ASEAN members.

what a brainless statement given by the minister.. if i were the investor i also won't give 30% to the sleeping partners. regardless you are bumiputra or not, prove to the investors that you are capable of holding the percentage of shares you want, with you own capability, you can even get more than that. after so long you still don't understand why bumi are moving slow, you spoon feed them too much!

i think she's trying to divert AP topic on herself.. sigh.. can we malaysian forgive and forget rafidah, give her a tunship and let her disappear by herself? rather than chasing away all the foreign investment day by day.

Hmm, I guess I'd better enrol myself for some Vietnamese language classes. At this rate we'll be shipping our workers there no time soon..Better get a headstart while we can..
But seriously, we need to look at what we're pitching coz' not too many are buying it. We need to reinvent ourselves, sharpen our pencils and get some young guns to promote and do a better job of selling (not selling out) the country. The education system needs a serious re-looking to encourage innovative thinking instead of churning out graduates fit for the assembly line and manufacturing fields. S'pore has a population 10 times smaller than ours yet it reaps in FDI thats 5 times ours? U don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out something's wrong...

It is sad that some of our politicians and namely Rafidah are behaving so arrogrant for making such stupid remarks. Here we are going all out to woo investors to our country and here we have arrogrant ministers trying to chase them away. How will other genuine investing countries look at us?

The remark by Rafidah is uncalled for. If there are investors who do not conform to Malaysia's ruling, it means they will have to take their investments elsewhere. There is no need to make a sensation out of this in the papers and let the whole world know how arrogrant we are. I have seen Rafidah in action and she is arrogrant.

Perhaps she is trying to outdo George Bush by being brash and arrogrant? Maybe she wants to get into the limelight now? Or she being a woman minister, she has something to prove?

"after so long you still don't understand why bumi are moving slow, you spoon feed them too much!"

Brother, it is the rich bumis that are getting richer. Just look at the rural Malays, they are still poor. It doesn't take a genius to figure how come despite so many years of spoon feeding...also there is no need to compare with Singapore, they are on the merit system and are wooing the foreign brains to their country. Here, we get mainly get muslim blue collars from neighbouring country.

"after so long you still don't understand why bumi are moving slow, you spoon feed them too much!"

Brother, it is the rich bumis that are getting richer. Just look at the rural Malays, they are still poor. It doesn't take a genius to figure how come despite so many years of spoon feeding...also there is no need to compare with Singapore, they are on the merit system and are wooing the foreign brains to their country. Here, we get mainly get muslim blue collars from neighbouring country.

"Rafidah said under the Second Industrial Master Plan, Malaysia had attracted total investments of RM260 billion in manufacturing activities, exceeding its target of RM250 billion".

Can we really trust anyone who becomes arrogrant after their target has been achieved? Before: all smiles and sweet talk, After: It is arrogrance.

these people just talk and talk and talk nonsense. Gosh! Who in the right sense of mind will make this kind of statement?
Looks like we have a whole bunch of individual who are sooo easily satisfied. Where are we heading???? Now u know why TDM wants to get rid of these people.... come to think about it, this old man has a point.

From AWSJ

Malaysia's Economic Muddle
August 23, 2006

State-planning documents can be desperately dull affairs. But Malaysia's latest tome, the "Third Industrial Plan," is certainly worth a peek -- not for what's in it, mostly, but for what's left out.

The forward, penned by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, offers a grand vision. Over the next 15 years, Malaysia should "attain developed nation status" and "become globally competitive," he writes. The next 760-odd pages set out a strategy to encourage domestic investment, the development of better human capital, and freer trade with foreigners, among other things.

The sense of urgency is palpable, and laudable. While Mr. Abdullah has tried to reform the country's government-linked companies, tackle corruption and liberalize the economy, his administration hasn't gotten very far. No significant reform measures in the areas of corporate tax, the labor market or privatization have flowered under his three-year tenure. Malaysia's domestic government expenditure, as a percentage of GDP, still mimics that of Communist China. Kuala Lumpur may sign free-trade agreements, but these won't bear much fruit unless investors want to put their money into the country.

Recently, they haven't. In 2005, Malaysia received a measly $10.9 billion in foreign direct investment. While that's an improvement over, say, five years ago, it's still only a sixth of what China received, and less than what South Korea and Singapore took in.

Perhaps the money isn't coming because investors don't sense anything changing much. Kuala Lumpur announced last week that it's not ready to sell its shares in state-owned companies anytime soon, putting them firmly out of foreigners' control. Then there is Malaysia's corporate income tax rate, stuck at 28%, while Singapore's is 20% and Hong Kong's, 17.5%. The new plan doesn't propose changing that either.

Contrast this with Indonesia, where an aggressive, reform-minded finance ministry team is in place, and it's little wonder that Jakarta's stock market is up over 30% this year, while Kuala Lumpur's stock market is up little over 2% over the same period.

It's unfair to put all the blame on Mr. Abdullah. His ruling United Malays National Organization party hasn't put its full weight behind the prime minister's reformist agenda. That may help explain why the Third Industrial plan prominently highlights populist affirmative-action programs for ethnic Malays. These include the familiar hiring quotas, and rules that say companies selling stock in Malaysia have to allocate at least 30% of the offer to Bumiputra, who are mostly ethnic, Muslim Malays.

It's hard to know just how much these policies have stifled economic innovation and scared away foreign investment. But it's safe to say that no affirmative-action program in history has ever resulted in the
"resilient and competitive" economy that Mr. Abdullah desires.

The Third Industrial Plan does try to show what modern liberals might term "progressive" thinking. It nods to the potential contribution of non-governmental organizations and endorses concepts such as "corporate social responsibility," which it defines as "responsible business practices" that "government and business will work in tandem" to achieve. Absent specifics, though, such fuzzy language also could become a recipe for more onerous regulation.

In short, Mr. Abdullah is trying to please everyone in the Third Industrial Plan. For instance, he wants "fair economic participation among all ethnic groups and regions in every sphere of development." A tall order that may not, in the end, produce very much at all.

http://online.wsj.com

caribenar, sorry i was talking in a general view and i do agree is the rich who get richer. what i am trying to say is when thing comes easy, people will take it for granted. if i am a bumi, you give me 20-30k salary to sit in the board of directors in a foreign company simply for the bumi status, i will enjoy it much too. it'll never improve if you go on the easy way.

put it this way, from business point of view, if you are the foreign investor, what will attract you to invest in malaysia compares to china? china is more resourceful and i just don't think it'll help by making such statement, unless you want to close the door and just do business with your own people.

"Over the next 15 years, Malaysia should "attain developed nation status" and "become globally competitive""

actually, about this Vision 2020 thing... i've wondered what's stopping malaysia from declaring itself developed, since we've already done that for one of our states...

"after so long you still don't understand why bumi are moving slow, you spoon feed them too much!"

"it is the rich bumis that are getting richer. Just look at the rural Malays, they are still poor"

Agree.

You guys should know how business works in Malaysia, specifically businesses related to the government. It's all about connection. Who you know. Those who has the right connection would have the "special key of success". Needless to say, those already in the pool would have a much better chance to get more of these keys. Along the chain, the keys they are having will benefit their relatives and friends. Hence, nepotism. The rural Malays? They can only dream about it if they don't work hard.

Obviously, there already a bunch that are already f****** rich, and these are the people who has the right connection, they are the first one to know what project the government is going to do. They will have first hand information about all the golden opportunities. The rural Malays? They will know after the project is awarded and printed in the news paper.

Not only malays, chinese, indians, they are all the same, it is just how business works in Malaysia. The big difference between other races is they don't depent so much on the government to earn their rice bow.

Good, 260 billion of investment in manufacturing activities. But who would get that kind of golden opportunities to become the sleeping partner? If not a sleeping partner, maybe one that can tie up all businesses involved with the government? And do you have a "datuk" title? Think about it.

This is typical of someone who is akin to say this:

"I have made my big bucks. Why should I care about the rest of you?"

JacknJill, the problem there with your quote in this context, is that the bucks that Malaysia 'made' is not big. 'Big' is relative. In this case, we lag even behind Indonesia, for crying out loud. A country where natural calamities have reigned over the past 18 months, and where corruption is rife. Yet, foreigners have decided to put more of their money there than in Malaysia. No disrespect to Indonesia in this regards, as their ministers have started the wheels of change in motion.

Sadly, Malaysia is truly going nowhere at this moment. If I may say, it is stagnant, if not moving backwards with the way things are going. Even my friends are investing their money elsewhere as they don't see their future in Malaysia anymore. The rakyat is disenchanted and if Pak Lah does nothing innovative to curb it, Malaysia is gonna goto the dogs. Such arrogance displayed by Rafidah Aziz only serves to drive the stake right through Malaysia's heart.

Looks like Malaysia is abandoned, not only by FDI's but by its citizens. Badawi doesn't seem to be interested in mentality reform. bumi equity ruling should be reduce to say 5% a year for those already implemented or non-bumis who are third generation born in Malaysia can be considered a Bumi.(That will make Toyo a non-bumi by definition but retains his Umno membership)
The morale is so low that more indons/Myanmar came to support their national team at the present Merdeka Cup football tournament that the home crowd.
Just fyi, Giant/carrefour have not obtained their 30% bumi shareholding and they doesn't seem to care on that ruling. The government cannot do anything to them as it may affect investor's sentiments. similarly Telenor on the 61% majority holdings in Digi.
It just shows that what Ministers preached is not exactly what they mean. And the foreigners knows that.

ROFL.

Many commenter just forget about FTZ- Free trade zone in Bolehland. Bare in mind that FTZ is something that attract the FDI, which mean BMW(Big Mouth Woman) can do a shit to to impose the 30% share control with entities inside FTZ.

Alas, FTZ investment only transitional economy benefit, such as employment and generate artificial "export figures" for the country economy.

Correction, the first paragraph should read as :

which mean BMW(Big Mouth Woman) can't do a shit to impose 30% share control with entities inside FTZ.

Quote Rafidah,

"We are not hiding anything and there are areas you can have 100 per cent equity, majority stake and 30 per cent Bumiputera stake ... those who have other feelings can go elsewhere," she said.

This is accepted. So, let us all, foreigners and malaysians, who have other feelings pack our bags and go elsewhere. What is good for the foreigner is also good for the malaysian.

Let us all vote with our feet.

The issue here is not what we are getting but how much we are NOT getting because of such policies and statements. We will never know. It also not how well we are doing but how much better we can do. We will NOT know because of Rafidah type mindset.

It's not a Rafidah mindset but really the dominant party mindset. Most of them have this mindset, even a certain young son in law who recently don't have this mindset now have it, it's pretty contagious.
Now you might ask why this is so? It's the only way they stay relevant and still get support from their community. It's not going to change anytime soon as seen by the number of extensions of the NEP.