Khir: Selangor government needs to make more foreign trips

(The Malaysian Insider) SHAH ALAM, May 20 — Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, who has been under criticism from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) for his various visits overseas, today slammed the state government for not actively seeking new investments into the state.

“The problem now is I can see the state government has not done many visits to attract investors,” said Khir at a press conference here.

He said that as mentri besar for eight years he had attracted huge investments.

“In the year 2000 when I became MB, we received investments of RM4 billion. In 2007 we got RM11.7 billion, ahead of Penang and Johor,” he said.

“I will not stop people from making trips overseas, because an MB needs to go on these trips with civil servants to learn,” he added.

“When I went overseas I visited the individual factories, based on information we obtained, we approached companies that have shown interest to invest in Southeast Asia to convince them to come to Selangor,” he said.

Recently, Khir was accused of misusing his position as chairman of the state investment arm PNSB to make a trip to Tokyo Disneyland where he was accompanied by his wife, children and state government officials.

“I did not just go to Disneyland during that trip. We visited four countries and we brought back investments worth RM3 billion. They didn't talk about the whole trip, only parts which they like,” he said.

He added that he had already clarified that the PNSB did not finance his children and his maids' expenses during the trip.

The information on what he called a technical visit was revealed during a Select Committee on Competence, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) hearing on misuse of state funds by charity organisation Balkis which Khir chose not to attend.

Yesterday the Selangor opposition leader was suspended for one year by the state assembly's rights and privileges committee for his absence.