Plan to promote local products not a boycott, says Mahathir
Plan to promote local products not a boycott, says Mahathir
KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday the campaign to promote Malaysian-made goods to domestic consumers isn't a boycott of foreign products, but by the same token, he unequivocally repeated his call that the country reduce its dependency on dollar-denominated foreign trade.
"When our currency depreciates, the only thing we can do is to reduce our consumption of imported goods which require foreign exchange," the premier said.
"We're not against foreigners, (and) we're not boycotting foreign goods." But Mahathir said the country must reduce its dependency on dollar-denominated goods as the depreciated ringgit has made Malaysians poorer. Thus they now get less for their money when acquiring foreign-made, especially dollar-denominated products.
He added that more domestic purchases would reduce the outflow of funds, while improving the balance of trade in Malaysia's favor.
We want to buy (goods) from Japan in yen, not dollars," Mahathir said. "Similarly with other countries," Malaysia should pay for goods in either ringgit or in the respective country's own currency, he added.
And if for exported Malaysian goods to Japan, Malaysia receives yen, it can then use the yen to pay for its Japanese imports. In this way the dependency on dollars to conduct international trade is reduced, Mahathir said.
Mahathir urged local importers and exporters to use Malaysian ports and other trade-related services such as shipping and trade insurance to narrow the country's trade in services deficit.
"Every time you do that, you enrich the country," the premier declared.
Mahathir said Malaysia is moving to increase its exports to spur economic recovery.
Citing the continued weakness in the ringgit, Mahathir said currency traders like to ascribe the ringgit's recent falls to the falling yen and the Indonesian rupiah. But that's just a pretext to push the ringgit lower, he suggested.
"When our currency depreciates, we can try to please currency traders by asking them to revalue our currency (independently of other Asian currencies)," Mahathir said. "Unfortunately they are devaluing it (anyway)."