TJ Ringkas:

Sumber IHT: International Herald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/SAT/FIN/ringgit.2.html

Malaysia Longgarkan Syarat Pelaburan Asing

Malaysia nampaknya cuba menterbalikkan aliran arus dana asing dari meninggalkan negara. Ia kini menghapuskan satu cukai yang dikenakan sejak krisis ekonomi satu ketika dulu.

Para analis berpendapat sikap Malaysia itu menggambarkan bahawa dana asing di negara ini sudahpun hampir kontang. Sebab itulah harga sahamnya asyik menurun beberapa bulan yang lepas.

Sewaktu kawalan modal dikenakan, Mahathir mengatakan "Malaysia tidak perlu kepada sistem pasaran terbuka". Jelaslah polisi itu membuatkan ramai pelabur asing bertempiaran lari, termasuk beberapa syarikat pelbagai kaum yang gergasi kerana bimbang kata-kata retorik beliau yang tidak mesra.

Mengikut peraturan baru belanjawan tersebut, pelabur asing tidak perlu membayar cukai keluar 10% jika mereka menyimpan wang melebihi setahun. Walaupun kadar tersebut lebih rendah dari di negara barat, ia masih tidak adil kerana pelabur tempatan dikecualikan.

Ramalan terkini merasakan dana asing mungkin tidak akan kembali ke Malaysia dengan segera. Satu kajian oleh ADB (Asian Development Bank) menmbuat anggaran bahawa pada tahun depan, lima negara yang paling teruk dilanda krisis 1997 iaitu Indonesia, Korea Selatan, Malaysia, Filipina dan Thailand - akan menerima kurang dari suku daripada apa yang diterima oleh mereka pada tahun ini. Kelima negara tersebut diramal mengakhiri tahun ini dengan kadar kemasukkan bersih $13.2 billion wang portfolio. Tetapi mereka cuma akan mendapat $3.3 bilion sahaja pada tahun depan, menurut data-data dari IMF.

FDI bersih kepada kelima-lima negara itu dijangka surut dari $13.1 bilion pada 1999 kepada $9.1 billion pada tahun 2000.

Jika semua wang swasta yang masuk dan keluar dari kelima-lima negara iru dicongak, ia akan menghasilkan satu jumlah bersih yang negatif - $22.4 billion. Ini adalah merupakan pembayaran HUTANG oleh syarikat2 yang bermasalah!

-TJ Man Kubur-

Paris, Saturday, October 28, 2000

Malaysia Eases Foreign Investment

By Thomas Fuller International Herald Tribune

KUALA LUMPUR - Eager to reverse the tide of foreign funds leaving the country, Malaysia on Friday abolished a key restriction on foreign investment imposed during the height of the region's economic crisis two years ago.

Analysts said the reversal reflected the urgent need for foreign capital in Malaysia and around Southeast Asia, where foreign money in stock markets has all but dried up, contributing to a plunge in share prices across the region.

When Malaysia's restrictions on foreign money were announced in September 1998, Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad said the country could ''no longer stay with the so-called free-market system.'' But the policy drove many foreign investors away, including some multinational companies worried about his anti-foreign rhetoric.

''We must acknowledge that in a borderless world, large international conglomerates have greater choices in their investment decisions,'' Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin said Friday.

Under the new rules, foreign investors in the stock market will no longer have to pay a special 10 percent capital-gains tax if they keep their money in the country for more than one year. While that rate is significantly lower than capital-gains rates in the West, foreign fund managers had complained that the tax was unfair because it did not affect local investors.

''We're back on a level playing field for most institutional investors,'' said Dominic Armstrong, head of research for Singapore and Malaysia at ABN-AMRO Securities. ''Malaysia recognizes that they cannot go on abusing foreign investors.''

Malaysia had already dismantled most of the capital controls adopted at the height of the crisis. Battered stock markets around the region are desperate to get back onto foreign investors' maps, with four bourses in the region down more than 40 percent this year.

Current forecasts suggest that foreign money may not come back too soon. A recent study by the Asian Development Bank estimated that next year, the five countries worst affected by the 1997 economic crisis - Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand - would receive less than a quarter of the foreign stock-market investment they received this year. The five countries are projected to finish the year with a net inflow of $13.2 billion in portfolio money, according to the study, based on data compiled by the International Monetary Fund. Next year, the Fund estimates, the five countries will receive a paltry $3.3 billion

In the volatile world of stock-market investors, these are no better than educated guesses. But even numbers that are easier to predict - direct investments in factories or equipment - are well below pre-crisis levels.

Net foreign direct investment inflows to the five countries are projected to shrink from $13.1 billion in 1999 to $9.1 billion in 2000.