Prime Minister tells top fund managers that country has many things going for it and it is only a "question of time" before the market realises it.
PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Najib Razak has told top fund managers in San Francisco that Malaysia has strong fundamentals despite the current economic challenges it was facing and that it was only a matter of time before the market saw it.
In his opening remarks at the “Invest Malaysia 2016 Conversation Series” by Bursa Malaysia and Maybank Investment Bank, Najib was reported by the New Straits Times as saying, “Malaysia has good prospects. Under adverse conditions, we still perform pretty well.
“Moving forward, we believe that performance can be achieved with policies that will not change. I know there is a lot of noise but if you look beyond that and look deeper into Malaysia, we do have strong fundamentals and it is only a question of time before the market realises it.”
Among the steps to ensure the country’s “good prospects”, Najib explained that the government was committed to maintaining a prudent fiscal policy, ensuring the national debt ratio was kept below 55 per cent of the GDP, reining-in spending and maintaining a current account surplus.
On the issue of the ringgit, Najib was optimistic that although under-performing now, it would recover against the dollar in the near future.
He also clarified that “certain fundamentals” that Malaysia enjoyed, clearly put the country in a completely different category from that of other emerging markets.
Also at the roadshow were Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Wahid Omar; Bursa Malaysia chief executive officer Tajuddin Atan and Maybank Investment Bank Bhd CEO John Chong.
The Malaysian team has met with 103 fund managers and investors from 79 funds with total assets under management (AUM) of over USD20 trillion with close to 95 per cent being “long only” funds.
Wahid, who is in charge of economic planning, said all the meetings with fund managers went well.
“They said we are proactive in recalibrating the 2016 Budget and our revenue-enhancement measures which provide some upside to partially mitigate the RM9 billion drop in revenue,” he told the NST.
“But they remain concerned with China’s slowdown which could potentially trigger instability in global financial markets,” he said.
-FMT NEWS-
Post a Comment