Strategic adviser to the Penang CM Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said Najib should know better about foreign direct investment (FDI) data on Penang since he is the finance minister.
Last week, Najib said many foreign investors were exiting Penang, while Lim claimed that Penang was “the destination” for foreign investors.
“It is embarrassing when a PM and finance minister does not evaluate the statistics beforehand before accusing Penang as being badly managed under the administration of Lim.
“If Najib hurls an accusation that investors are leaving Penang, why is Penang’s economy booming?” Saifuddin questioned in a statement today.
Saifuddin, who is also PKR’s secretary-general, also asked if Najib knew factors linked to FDI are co-related to economic situations, investment incentives, return potential, good governance, corruption and political stability.
Saifuddin said Penang had recorded promising FDI growth in 2016. He said according to federal government data, 106 new investments were brought in to Penang valued at RM4.29 billion.
He said 71% of the amount was foreign investments. Saifuddin said this alone debunked what Najib had claimed in his blogpost.
“Despite a smaller land mass, Penang’s performance was more sustainable and competitive compared with states such as Kedah and Malacca BN ruled by Umno,” Saifuddin said.
Saifuddin also said Penang’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) was also encouraging.
He said in the period of 2010 to 2015, the GDP had swelled from 5.5% to 6.6%.
Saifuddin said Penang also contributed 12.8% to the manufacturing sector in 2015.
“These are data from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority and the Statistics Department, which are federal agencies,” he said.
Najib had said last Thursday that opposition leaders often badmouthed the country during their trips overseas, without bringing back with them potential businesses to invest in Malaysia.
He labelled the opposition as “economic saboteurs” as they induced more investors to shy away from Malaysia, compared with himself and his cabinet members who went overseas and came back with investors.
He singled out Lim, saying when the BN-led federal government brought more investors, Lim claimed the country was being sold to foreigners.
“Once upon a time, Lim had proudly proclaimed Penang was the destination of choice with foreign investors.
“In reality, many investors have left Penang,” Najib said in a posting on his blog titled “Fokus Lawatan Kerja Ke Luar Negara” (“Focus on Working Visit to Foreign Countries”) on March 30.
“Now, Lim has changed his tune and his supporters have blamed us for selling our country when there are many foreign investments coming to Malaysia,” he said.
Najib said if Lim’s logic were to be followed, Malaysians too must be blamed for investing nearly RM570 million overseas.
“I am curious to know which country has sold its sovereignty to Malaysia since Malaysian companies have invested so much in other countries?”
Najib also said the opposition was bent in using “jual negara” (selling the country) when the government tried to bring in investments.
On this, Saifuddin also said the “jual negara” term was used as the government appeared to use bloated infrastructure projects to offset debts in 1MDB.
He said “jual negara” was also when the government was not forthright with the freehold or leasehold issue there.
“There are plenty of other definitions to ‘jual negara’ which can be closely related to actions of Najib which have given our country a bad image,” Saifuddin said.
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