KUALA LUMPUR – Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is of the view that Malaysia cannot be too dependent on foreign direct investments (FDIs) if it wants to achieve developed nation status.
He said the country needs to be in control of technology and target industrial production for the global market, as Asian countries including China, Japan and South Korea are doing.
“We depend on foreign investors, (who) build factories which do not belong to us. All profits are repatriated (to their countries) and we do not get the technology completely,” he said during the Minda Profesor Negara programme organised by the National Professors Council (MPN).
The segment titled “Future of Malaysia: Where are we heading?” was aired on MPN’s Facebook page.
He said for example, South Korea is now the manufacturer of the world’s biggest ships after becoming aware that there is demand in the world market for such products.
Meanwhile, MPN president and chief executive Datuk Raduan Che Rose said according to his research on the transfer of technology by multinational companies in Malaysia, the country is being used more as a production plant.
“All the research and strategic matters remain with the respective countries. The mistake was perhaps in the early stages, when we were desperate to create jobs at the manual level,” he said. – Bernama, March 1, 2021
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