Moderate path
By Sharif Haron, NST
MALAYSIA is taking the path of moderation not just because it is right, but because it works, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said yesterday.
“We are moderate not because it is right. We are moderate because it works — and I make no apology for that.
“Our economy has grown because we are moderate. The markets — never a fan of financial extremes — trust us because we are moderate. Investors deposit their money with us because we are moderate,” he told business leaders at a forum here yesterday.
He said Malaysia’s own progress has been built on the bedrock of political, social and economic moderation and zero tolerance for extremists. “And today, as people and governments everywhere struggle to navigate the global economic storm and to come to terms with our new interconnectedness, it is precisely this moderation that provides a clear path back to economic growth.” The Global Investment Forum, organised by the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority, was to give key insights into Malaysia’s position as a business and investment destination.
Earlier in his speech, the prime minister declared he would not be making a sales pitch as such, leaving this job to International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed instead.
He went on to present his case on why those who were still thinking along the terms of East versus West are stuck in the past.
He said it was naive to suggest that the global marketplace operated according to some kind of “see-saw economics” where if one side went up the other automatically went down.
“Unemployment is low in Kuala Lumpur but not because it is high in Detroit. Maybank is expanding but not because of the collapse of Northern Rock. And Malaysia’s economy gets stronger by the day, but not because the economy in Portugal is on its knees.” While it was true that Asian economies have grown by more than six per cent in each of the past five years and Europe had only achieved around one per cent, the West and East were not sitting at opposite ends of the see-saw.
Instead, as national economies become global and their interests more intertwined, they find themselves increasingly coming together in the middle.
A rise in the living standards in the East does not cause the West to falter, rather helps it rise yet higher as people’s demand for goods will stretch increasingly beyond nations’ borders.
“If you walk into any mall in Kuala Lumpur, you will see British brands like Topshop, Burberry, and Marks and Spencer alongside Malaysian ones like Maxis, Parkson and Metrojaya.
“And it is not only retail firms who have made the move — our financial sector is also host to firms, like RBS, Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered, which are working to develop a new generation of financial products that can meet the ever-growing expectations of Malaysians.
“Increasing prosperity for all: that is the goal of our new global age — and as wealth creators, you are the people who will ensure that we achieve it.” Najib pointed out though that Malaysia’s economic success, including an economic growth rate of 7.2 per cent last year and probably five to six per cent this year, had not been through some kind of global inevitability, but through sound policy, shrewd governance and deft economic stewardship.
He also said at the heart of Malaysia’s success has been its international outlook and new way of doing business in an environment where economies are interdependent, to the extent that “a car assembled in Dagenham is designed in Detroit, powered by an engine from Tokyo and fitted with tyres from Kuala Lumpur”.
He said national economic interest was becoming more about collective interest, which was why Malaysia rejected the outdated notion of taking sides in international trade and relations, opting instead for a new multilateralism that worked both for the nation and its partners.
“We live in an age where Portugal looks to Brazil, its former colony, for help in dealing with its economic problems… a world where the Olympics is coming to London but the World Cup is going to Qatar.
“It’s less a question of whether East or West will come out on top and more one of whether and for low long these labels will continue to apply.
“I have no doubt those investors who are truly global in their outlook will reap the biggest rewards — because as the saying goes, the sun may set in the west and rise in the east but it’s always daylight somewhere in the world!”
