INTERNATIONALISING RINGGIT WILL NOT AFFECT INVESTMENT

SHAH ALAM (Selangor, Malaysia), Sept 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will continue to
be an attractive investment destination whether the ringgit is internationalised
or not, according to International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed.

"The government... from what I heard has not decided on this," he told reporters
after officiating "The Ship", headquarters of the PKT group of companies here
Tuesday.

"You must also understand, the world likes a liberal regime like freedom of
speech or expression and currency trading as well. So, we have to look it
carefully," Mustapa said.

Prime Minister Najib Razak said last week that the government might consider
allowing the ringgit to trade offshore, 12 years after this was stopped amid the
Asian financial crisis.

The ringgit is currently trading at a 13-year high of 3.10 to the US dollar.

"Our ringgit strengthened in line with the stronger economic fundamentals and
this has not resulted in an adverse impact on trade and investment into
Malaysia," Mustapa said.

On whether a stronger ringgit was hurting exporters, the minister said that
movement of the ringgit was up to market forces with the government not
intervening in the foreign exchange market.

Asked to provide an update the country's investments, he said for the first
seven months of 2010, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) had
approved investments of RM16.6 billion (US$5.35 billion), with foreign
investments at RM9.6 billion (US$3.09 billion) and domestic investments at RM7
billion (US$2.25 billion).

Last year, MIDA approved a total of RM32.6 billion (US$10.51 billion) in
investments, of which RM10.5 billion (US$3.38 billion) was domestic direct
investments and RM22.1 billion (US$7.12 billion) came from foreign investors.
-- BERNAMA