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.