MP SPEAKS | Is Malaysia in danger of being the new 'sick man' of Southeast Asia?

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MP SPEAKS | In the 1970s and 1980s, the Philippines was known as the ‘sick man’ of Asia because of its poor economic record and unwillingness of foreign companies to invest in the country under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Even after the fall of Marcos in 1986, it took the Philippines decades before foreign investors returned to the country.

Is Malaysia in danger of going down the same path and be seen as the new ‘sick man’ of Asia in the 2020s because of political ineptitude and the inability to manage the Covid-19 crisis under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government?

The inability of the PN government to manage the third wave of Covid-19 cases has resulted in the second movement control order (MCO 2.0) at the start of 2021.

At the same time, new data has emerged which shows a significant decline in foreign investor confidence in Malaysia. According to the January 2021 issue of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), it was reported that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to South East Asia fell by 31 percent to US$107 billion in 2020.

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