Business

Friday May 15, 2009

Dr M: Govt can consider PR status for skilled foreigners to attract investments to Cuberjaya

By LEONG HUNG YEE


CYBERJAYA: The Government can consider giving permanent resident status to skilled and qualified foreigners to attract them to invest in Cyberjaya, according to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“If we cater more for the people who want to come, I think they will come. I think there must also be quality of life here as that is important. They should also have a good environment to work in,” he said after delivering his talk on “Malaysia-Today’s Knowledge Economy” at the Cyberjaya Malaysia-Bridging Business Needs Globally, Asia-Pacific Outsourcing Summit post-event tour yesterday.

The tour was organised by Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd, the master developer of Cyberjaya.

“If I were in the Government today, I will allow intelligent people to come in. Give them a permanent resident status then, maybe later on, citizenship.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (right) and MK Land Holdings Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri Mustapha Kamal Abu Bakar arriving at the post-event tour

“We don’t allow intelligent people to come in while we allow our intelligent people to go out. At the same time, people with less intelligence are coming in and with great numbers,” Mahathir said, adding that as a net result, Malaysia would become “more and more stupid.”

He said having good infrastructure would also attract foreigners to come to Cyberjaya.

While progress had been made at the information and communications technology hub over the years, Mahathir said he was still unsatisfied.

Cyberjaya was the brainchild of Mahathir before he left office in 2003.

“Cyberjaya has seen tremendous progress. You can see more buildings, houses and IT-related businesses here. The university is expanding and MSC is much more active now.

“But if you ask me, am I satisfied? The answer is no. I like things to move faster, better and sometimes more expensive.

“I’m 84 years old this year. I’ll like to see things better before I say farewell to everyone,” he said, to the laughter from the floor.

Mahathir said the plan for the creation of a community of foreigners working and living in Cyberjaya had not happened.

“When we planned Cyberjaya, we expected a lot of foreigners to live here in a special environment created for them: an environment that is very attractive where they can interact with each other,” he said, adding that, however, people preferred to stay elsewhere and work there.

“You can see that there are too many cars here. I prefer if they live here, attend club, play tennis and walk to office.”

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