Official: Malaysia not directly affected by Dubai crisis
Malaysia is not directly affected by the debt crisis in Dubai, a Malaysian official said on Thursday.
Malaysian Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nor Mohamed Yakcop made this remark after opening the Eighth Malaysia International Trade and Consumer Fair near here.
Nor said that compared with the subprime crisis originated from the United States, the crisis in Dubai involved a loss of 80 billion U.S. dollars, which was much smaller than the 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars loss in the earlier crisis.
Nor also said that the markets in Europe and the U.S. did not react negatively in the first two days after the Dubai crisis shocked the world.
Dubai fell into to a debt crisis when its state-owned investment flagship Dubai World asked for a delay in repaying some of the 60 billion U.S. dollars it had owed to creditors.
However, many heavyweight investment institutions cast doubts on the current default by warning that Dubai's debt might be over 80 billion U.S. dollars while some dubbed the Dubai crisis as the second financial crisis.
Nor said that indirectly, the Dubai crisis might have impact on financial centers in the U.S., London or Europe but there was no direct impact on Malaysia.
The minister also said that Malaysian contractors were investing around the globe and there might be some in the Middle East, but he had no actual statistics in hand.
On another note, Nor said the Malaysian government was not planning to roll out the third stimulus package for the country as the recovery process was going on well.
Nor said that after three consecutive quarters of contraction, the fourth quarter might be able to register positive growth.
The Malaysian government unveiled two stimulus packages worth a total of 67 billion ringgit (19.14 billion U.S. dollars) in November 2008 and March this year to boost the country's economy.
The fair, organized by Malaysia's Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor State, runs from Dec. 2 to 6 and has attracted over 100 local and foreign companies to take part.
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