Nazir: 1MDB declined invite to Invest Malaysia event

(The Star) – 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) was invited to attend the Invest Malaysia event – the biggest gathering of corporates and investors in the country – to allow it to give its side of the story.

However, the Finance Ministry-sponsored fund turned down the offer.

CIMB group chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak said that since there was so much chatter about 1MDB, the fund was invited to speak.

“This is the biggest investor programme and is held once a year. All major government investment companies are here and so are the key people in the capital markets.

“We felt that this was a good platform for them to answer questions,” he told reporters at Invest Malaysia here yesterday.

Invest Malaysia is a yearly affair where all major funds and key decision-makers such as the Bank Negara governor and ministers attend to outline their views.

In this year’s Invest Malaysia, Khazanah Nasional Bhd hosted a luncheon talk for participants while the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is due to give a talk on its strategies for Asean.

Nazir said that since everybody was talking about 1MDB, the earlier the issues were cleared up, the better it would be for the fund.

“When issues are not cleared up, people tend to expect the worse,” he said.

1MDB, a strategic fund with assets of RM51.4bil and debts of RM42bil is having cash flow problems servicing its obligations.

It was established in 2009 and has come under fire over its transactions.

Nazir said it was important Malaysian companies and the Government explain their case, as negative news affected investor sentiments and valuations of the ringgit.