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Malaysia not being colonised by China: Minister

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia is not being “colonised” by China nor overly dependent on its foreign direct investment (FDI), said Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai yesterday, dismissing claims by the opposition that Putrajaya’s close economic partnership with Beijing could jeopardise Malaysia’s sovereignty.

Malaysia's Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai talks to journalists in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur on July 13, 2017, following a closed-door gathering to commemorate the third anniversary of the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Photo: AFP

Malaysia's Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai talks to journalists in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur on July 13, 2017, following a closed-door gathering to commemorate the third anniversary of the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Photo: AFP

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KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia is not being “colonised” by China nor overly dependent on its foreign direct investment (FDI), said Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai yesterday, dismissing claims by the opposition that Putrajaya’s close economic partnership with Beijing could jeopardise Malaysia’s sovereignty.

Mr Liow said that, although investments from China had increased in recent years, it was still not the largest source of investments for Malaysia.

“In Malaysia, China is not number one. It is still behind others. We have Japan, the United States and even Asean (Association of South-east Asian Nations) countries,” he said.

“Some people accuse Malaysia of being colonised by China through FDI, that is not true. This is political manipulation.”

The president of the Malaysian Chinese Association — a component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition — said that Malaysia welcomed investments from all countries, including China.

“We are more focused on developing Malaysia’s economy. All these (accusations) will not hold water. I believe people will understand that all countries depend on FDI,” he added.

Mr Liow’s point that China is not the top investor in Malaysia appeared to contradict an assertion by China’s Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang, who told The Star in an interview over the weekend that China had overtaken the US, Japan and Singapore in FDI value for the first time last year.

“In the first six months of this year, our non-finance FDI totalled US$480 million (S$647 million), a rise of 6 per cent over the value in January-June 2016. Our accumulated FDI in Malaysia as at end-June 2017 was US$3.38 billion,” said Mr Huang.

China is Malaysia’s largest trading partner, while Malaysia is China’s eighth-largest trading partner and the second-largest in Asean.

During a visit by Prime Minister Najib Razak to China in November last year, both countries signed 14 Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) worth a total of RM143.64 billion (S$46.3 billion).

Mr Najib visited China again in May this year, and another nine MOUs worth RM30 billion were signed.

Last month, Malaysia launched the construction of the East Coast Rail Link, a RM55 billion rail project spanning four states that will be financed and built by China.

Mr Najib said then that turning away FDI from China, as suggested by the opposition, was a near-sighted approach that would only put Malaysia in a bind.

“China is the world’s second-largest economy and a trading nation that is looking increasingly outwards. So it makes no economic sense for Malaysia to turn away Chinese FDl, as some politicians are suggesting,” he said then.

“Such a myopic and narrow-minded view betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of economics and would be bad for the country.”

He added that the government “will not compromise the country’s sovereignty one inch”, alluding to claims by opposition politicians such as former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad that the country’s over-reliance on borrowings from a single source, such as China, could jeopardise Malaysia’s sovereignty. AGENCIES

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