FDI Plunge: It’s a conspiracy!
Art Harun
Just as we were jumping in unison, de-corking our halal champagne while wearing our national football team jersey – as opposed to a Manchester United jersey – to celebrate a visit by Robert De Niro to our Wonderland, someone decided to spoil the party.
Before going into that, I would like to ask the guy who said that Manchester United jersey should not be worn because it’s crest depicts the devil. My question is this. When have you seen the devil to know that the depiction on Man U jersey is that of the devil himself (for that matter, is the devil a “he”?).
For all we know, the rooster on Tottenham Hotspur’s jersey is the real devil! That explains why Spur’s fans still support the club. LOL!!
Anyway, I digress.
Oh, by the way, Robert De Niro was in town. Of course, for the BC generation like me – BC for “before computer” if you hadn’t known – De Niro is da man. The Google generation however would very much prefer Robert Downey Jr.
Who else could have done that “you talkin’ to me” stuff other than De Niro. Remember guys?
“You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”
I digress again.
Anyway, here goes with the real story. Malaysians who follow the economic progress of this country were jolted with the published numbers relating to our foreign direct investments last week.
According to the World Investment Report 2010 unveiled on 23rd July, our FDI plunged 81 percent from US$7.32 billion (RM23.47 billion*) in 2008 to just US$1.38 billion (RM4.43 billion) last year. (*Calculated based on exchange rate of US$1 = RM3.20650). (as reported by MalaysiaKini).
And to add salt to the already gaping wound, our capital outflow for the same period was RM25.77 billion! That means we have a negative capital flow.
As comparison, in 2008, we had RM23.47 billion inflow compared to RM48.06 billion outflow.
What is happening?
