Money woes costs SE Asia $200 billion: Mahathir
Money woes costs SE Asia $200 billion: Mahathir
KULIM, Malaysia (AFP): Malaysian estimates show that the
recent currency depreciation had wiped about US$200 billion off
the wealth of Southeast Asian nations, Premier Mahathir Mohamad
said Saturday.
Those behind the downfall of the region's currencies would
"soon find that by making us poor, they will lose this market,"
Mahathir warned as he launched the production at an automobile
venture comprising South Korean's Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd., French
carmaker Renault and three local partners.
The premier also touched on the "prophets of doom" alluding to
foreign analysts and economists who had predicted that Malaysia's
economy would slump after growing at above eight percent a year
over a decade.
Mahathir acknowledged that while the economy would not grow as
fast as recent years, economic expansion would continue to be
strong.
"We may not grow at eight percent but we are not going to grow
at a very low percentage either," he said.
He urged his countrymen to unite and "work hard" to overcome
the current crisis and show that they can "cope with any
deliberate attempts to sabotage" the economy.
Earlier, Mahathir called for the upholding of "Asian values"
as he again took another swipe at foreign funds which he blamed
for Southeast Asia's financial downturn.
Mahathir said Asian values "will not only overcome the present
problem but it would actually help us to be magnanimous to those
who try to disable us."
"I am not one of those who think that the 21st century would
be the Asian century. Rather, I believe the next century will be
the global century," he was reported saying at northeast Langkawi
resort island.
The Bernama news agency report did not provide Mahathir's
definition of "Asian values" but the premier did say they include
an attitude of "prospering others in order to prosper
themselves."
Such Asian values would help shape the global century "for we
do not believe in destroying others, undermining them
deliberately, doing shady things in order to ensure that they
fail.
"Nor do we gloat obscenely when we see others suffer as a
result of our actions," he added.
Mahathir said Southeast Asia's financial crisis was triggered
by greedy foreign traders who exploit the weakness of countries
they invest in and impoverish the countries in the process.
Such exploitative investment must be "restricted and the
source of their funds must be carefully examined," he said.
On the other hand, he added that smart partnerships involving
investment that cannot be liquidated easily but are "serious,
long-term, open and are concerned with the production of goods
and services" should be promoted.
In what is now seen as his trademark style, Mahathir has in
recent months lashed out foreigners for allegedly engineering the
region's financial woes, repeatedly blaming U.S. financier George
Soros, describing foreign investors as "wild beasts" and at one
point calling for currency trading to be banned.