Envoy: Dr M’s return restored Japanese industries’ faith in country
KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s return as prime minister after the 14th General Election has restored the faith of Japanese industries in the Malaysian market, said a high-ranking Japanese official.
Japanese ambassador to Malaysia, Dr Makio Miyagawa, said Japanese industries hesitated in making investments in Malaysia over the past three years due to the country’s political and economic risks.
“Media reports for the past few years did not give us a good outlook for the future of Malaysia, particularly in its strategic engagement, industrial policy and economic strategy.
“With the return of Dr Mahathir, I’m sure our industries will be delighted to think positively of their engagement with Malaysia and its industries,” he said at the Bernama news agency’s headquarters here yesterday.
Japan is Malaysia’s largest foreign direct investment (FDI) contributor. Last year, its FDI stock to Malaysia was approximately US$13 billion (RM51.7 billion).
Miyagawa said new policies announced by the Malaysian government showed the country was ready to keep “its house in order” by cleaning up its debts, and Japan was keen to engage with Malaysia’s new administration.
He said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was looking forward to meeting Dr Mahathir when the latter visits Tokyo for the 24th International Conference on the Future of Asia, from June 11 to 12.
Both sides are preparing for what would be Dr Mahathir’s first visit since being sworn in as the country’s seventh prime minister.
During his first stint as the fourth prime minister from 1981 to 2003, he introduced the Look East Policy, which created a benchmark for Malaysia-Japan bilateral relations.
Reciprocating Dr Mahathir ’s desire to revive the Look East Policy, Miyagawa said Abe and the Japanese government looked forward to reinvigorating relations between the two countries, including trade and investments.
“We would like to evaluate the effectiveness, meanings of the policy and we would be happy to expand and broaden the policy,” he said, adding that with the current positive outlook, Japan hoped its cooperation with Malaysia would expand employment and improve Malaysia’s technology level.
On Dr Mahathir’s administration’s decision to scrap the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail project, for which Japan was a keen bidder, Miyagawa said he understood and respected the decision.
The envoy said Japan was willing to wait and would be there once Malaysia was ready to reconsider the project.
“With (the) accumulated debt being so huge, I think Malaysia’s priority would be to keep its house in order and when Malaysia is ready, we will be more than happy to engage with the country again,” he said.
He assured that whenever that moment arrived, Japan’s proposal would certainly consider human resource development, technology transfer, and beneficial engagement with Malaysia’s and Singapore’s industries.