Najib leads roadshow to raise Malaysia's profile

Deputy Premier will take delegation to Singapore to meet top fund managers

The Straits Times, May 25, 2007
By Carolyn Hong, Malaysia Bureau Chief



KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIAN Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak will lead a high-level delegation to Singapore next week to raise the country's international profile after Malaysia's economic restructuring since mid-2004.

Next Tuesday , Datuk Seri Najib will meet about 50 top-tier fund managers and sup with seven or eight heads of Singapore's top government-linked corporations, including state investment corporations Temasek Holdings and Government of Singapore Investment Corporation.

Accompanying him will be, among others, Malaysia's Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Bank Negara Malaysia deputy governor Ooi Sang Kuang and Datuk Azman Mokhtar, managing director of Temasek Holdings' Malaysian equivalent, Khazanah Malaysia.

An official involved in organising this Malaysian investment roadshow said: 'The Singaporeans requested a private dinner to see how best they can take part in the Iskandar Development Region (IDR).'

Investment banks ECM Libra Avenue and Credit Suisse are sponsoring the roadshow.

On Tuesday, Datuk Seri Najib will meet fund managers to brief them on investment opportunities under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

The fund managers whom he is to meet will come from financial hotbeds such as Hong Kong and the United States. Collectively, these managers are said to control half of the world's investment and hedge funds.

Among the opportunities he will present to them are the IDR as well as the country's soon-to-be launched industrial zones in its northern and eastern economic corridors.

The IDR is a 2,217-sq-km special economic zone in southern Johor which aims to become a regional powerhouse by leveraging on its proximity with Singapore.

To that end, the prime ministers of Malaysia and Singapore agreed at their leaders' retreat early last week to set up a joint ministerial committee to cooperate on making the IDR a success.

An official with the organisers told The Straits Times yesterday: 'Malaysia feels that it has a good story to tell, with the successful restructuring of its GLCs and structural changes to the economy.'

GLCs refer to government-linked corporations.

On Monday , Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop was quoted in business newspaper The Edge Financial Daily as saying that the country's overhaul of its GLCs since May 2004 had seen Malaysia's top 20 GLCs increasing their market value by RM80 billion (S$36 billion).

The organisers said there was also renewed interest in Malaysia among foreign investors following such developments as the further deregulation of the economy and the appreciation of the ringgit.

As a Malaysian official told reporters at a media briefing yesterday: 'Malaysia has been off their radar screen for so long. Now they are back and want to know what will happen in the next few years.'