PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said that Malaysian businessmen are interested in the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), but clarified that those in the private sector first want to know some important details before making their investment.
Meanwhile, President Marcos assured that the MIF would not experience the same problem encountered by the Malaysian Sovereign Fund which has been plagued with controversy.
According to the President, Malaysian investors had learned the lessons from what happened with their 1 Malaysian Development Fund Berhad (1MDB), and the Maharlika Fund will not fall into the same situation.
“Their experience here is not going to be a detriment. In fact, it is a way for them to — they are the most careful of all. Oh, we had the same problem. So, as long as you can assure them that what their poor experience was here, the terrible things that happened here, won’t happen to our fund and that,” President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said.
President Marcos also assured that the Maharlika Fund will be run by professionals.
“Again, if you remember, I am consistently saying it is going to be run professionally and without undue political influence. And of course, the government has an interest in the fund so we have a representative on the board. But on the day-to-day decisions as to what investments are to be made, it is left to those financial managers that we will be putting into place,” said President Marcos.
President Marcos’ state visit to Malaysia expected to create over 100-k jobs
The President said that over 100,000 jobs will be created from the 285 million investment fund reaped by the Marcos administration during the president’s 3-day state visit.
“We don’t have a number as yet because we – just signed. So, we will have to make the assessments. But I’m talking at the very least tens of thousands if not over more than 100,000 jobs here. Even especially during the construction phase but then hopefully even during the operational phase, the downstream, upstream and downstream jobs will also increase and will maintain that job employment rate,” President Marcos added.
Sabah issue was not much discussed during President Marcos’ state visit to Malaysia
As for the Sabah issue, President Marcos said that the matter was not much discussed during the visit to Malaysia and that the issue cannot be resolved immediately.
That’s why their talks centered more on trade and the strengthening of the development of the BARMM.
“I mean, it’s clear to all the parties involved that can’t be decided now if we talk. We will have to do something much, much larger and much more involved than just a quick discussion of 5, 10, 15-minute discussions with the leaders. So, the consensus is that we just talk about everything else. We talked about trade, we talked about the health that Malaysia has been providing, the development of the BARMM, we talked about again the people-to-people side of our relationship,” he added.
President Marcos visits the King of Johor Baru before returning to the Philippines
Before returning home to the Philippines, President Marcos visited his friend, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, the King of Johor Bau, at Istana Bukit Serene.
The President was accompanied by First Lady Liza Marcos-Araneta.
President Marcos returns to the Philippines after a 3-day state visit to Malaysia
President Marcos then returned to the Philippines on Thursday night.
To recall, his 3-day visit aims to further revive the diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the Philippines.
In fact, Malaysia ranked as the Philippines’ 10th trading partner as well as the 22nd source of approved investments in 2022.
