Putrajaya says FBC media helped attract FDI, tourism
By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — The government said today image consultants FBC Media helped raise the standing of Malaysia as a tourism and investment destination during the RM94 million three-year deal that began in 2007.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz told Parliament that the London-based media company, which is facing bankruptcy, “supported the efforts of government leaders and ministers” to burnish the country’s image overseas.
“The communications strategy was important in raising the standing of Malaysia as a tourism and investment destination,” the Padang Rengas MP said in reply to a parliamentary question by Kuala Krai MP Hatta Ramli.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz told Parliament today, “The communications strategy was important in raising the standing of Malaysia as a tourism and investment destination.” — file pic
In 2006 Malaysia drew 17.5 million tourists who spent an estimated RM38 billion, figures that rose to 24.6 million tourists spending RM56.5 billion last year.
Malaysia has also attracted RM21.3 billion worth of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the first half of this year alone, compared to RM29.3 billion last year and just RM5.7 billion in 2009 as the global financial crisis hit the country hard.
FDI in 2008 was RM24.1 billion.
FBC, whose contract ended last year, is being investigated by the UK’s communications industry regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), and US broadcaster CNBC for producing news content on Malaysia without revealing that Putrajaya was also its public relations client.
PAS election director Hatta had also questioned why Malaysia had contracted a company that has gone into administration — a legal term that allows a company facing bankruptcy to carry on business — “now that Malaysia is no longer paying it millions of ringgit.”
“Don’t we already have embassies and Matrade (the national trade promotion industry) offices in these markets?” he asked.
Nazri replied that most staff in these offices were only posted in a country for a few years at a time, resulting in networking and contacts being made on a short-term basis.
“So in the UK, it is better to use a firm from the UK,” he said.
The Malaysian Insider had reported that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has contracted a series of public relations strategists, including APCO Worldwide, to burnish both his personal image and that of his government’s locally and worldwide.
APCO’s time in Malaysia was marked by controversy after the opposition alleged the public relations firm was linked to Israel.
The most recent hire are members of the team behind former British PM Tony Blair’s “New Labour” campaign who were reported to have started work to reinvent Najib as a moderate reformist.
