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)."