MALAYSIA is coming out of the woods from the 1997-1998 Asian economic crisis and has adopted a new economic agenda that is drawing in foreign capital and boosting growth, a report said yesterday.
Malaysia has renewed foreign investor interest in its credit and equity markets, marking an amazing turnaround for a country until recently deemed a financial pariah, the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) said in its May 23 edition.
The distribution of the business news weekly has been blocked by the Malaysian government this year over alleged biased and inaccurate reporting on the country.
But in its latest edition, the magazine praises Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad 76, who is also finance minister, for setting a new economic agenda.
'It stems from a newly found political confidence that has spilled over to a market driven decision-making process - largely, though not completely, within a framework of transparency and good governance,' the FEER said.
Dr Mahathir, who came to power in 1981, has predicted 3.5 per cent growth for 2002.
'It isn't the same marketplace we fled three years ago,' the FEER quoted Dominic Armstrong, regional research head of ABN Amro in Singapore, as saying. 'Apart from Korea, Malaysia could be the best-regulated and most transparent market in Asia right now.'
The FEER said Malaysia's banks now are among the best in the region. They have been recapitalised, consolidated to 10 from 58 banks and financial institutions previously and have had their bad debts pruned to internationally accepted levels, it said.
The FEER cited central bank governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz as saying that Malaysia does not aspire to be an international financial centre where it would be important to liberalise and deregulate at a faster pace. 'We are different from Singapore and Hong Kong,' she said. Ms Zeti said future bank consolidation would be driven by more competitive market conditions.
She said there was a steady inflow of foreign investment especially from the information technology and services sector. - AFP
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