Set up committee to monitor investments: Johari Ghani

KUALA LUMPUR: Former second finance minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said the government should set up a committee under the International Trade and Industry Ministry to monitor investments coming into the country.

Johari told ‘Utusan Malaysia’ it is crucial to monitor the progress of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between Malaysian companies and foreign groups.

“These MoUs must be monitored so that there are follow-ups. We need to know if the potential investors are facing any problems, we should not just let it be.

“There must be monitoring that can be done through MITI. They can make periodic reports on why the investments were successful, why they were not, why postponements were warranted.”

He said progress reports on the investments should also be presented to the cabinet so that solutions to problems involving government agencies, departments and ministries could be found.

“This would encourage investor confidence,” he said.

Last week, Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that Malaysia had secured investment commitments to the tune of RM170 billion from China.

This was a result of the signing of 19 MoUs between Malaysian and Chinese companies, as well as a roundtable meeting with business leaders during his visit to China.

Yesterday, Anwar told the Dewan Rakyat the cabinet would discuss the formation of a committee to monitor the investments.

He said for the time being, the projects are being monitored by MITI, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority and Malaysia External Trade Development Corp.

NST