KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was wondering why the Minister of Economic Affairs, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali had a special attention on the losses amounting RM80 million involving online business dealing with inner wear and brassieres.
Najib said, Azmin had forgotten that Khazanah Nasional reaped a RM6 billion profit from Alibaba in 2014 and that amount was invested in 27 companies related to technology around the world.
He also questioned the losses amounting billion Ringgit in several investments like Silterra or MAS when Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was the fourth Prime Minister.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) in one of the sessions in Dewan Rakyat, I said that during my premiership, Khazanah Nasional’s net assets rose from RM33 billion to RM134.5 billion and asked Azmin why Khazanah was said to have been deviated from its objectives as a strategic investment company for the nation,” Najib reiterated.
In his Facebook Najib posted, as a strategic investment company, the objective of Khazanah is to create income besides investing to build relationship or related as a whole, around the world that could benefit the country.
This he said including garment businesses (inner or outside wear) where Malaysia has several brands that are accessible to the big markets in India.
Khazanah’s foreign investments will help Malaysia to be a global player that could benefit the Malaysians. A close example that follows the same initiative is a strategic investment company in Singapore.
Najib claimed that through the various foreign investments, Khazanah has set fund to make strategic investment in Silterra and MAS that had lost RM10 billion after Dr. Mahathir bought that company from a millionaire at a price (billions) higher than the market price at that time.
Khazanah had proven its excellent performance and continuously paid billions in the form as dividend to the government and also to the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) programmes.
The Khazanah’s profits that was not mentioned will be used as one of the sources to compensate the abolition of GST as announced by the Minister of Finance recently. –Malaysia World News.
