JOIN USHe said “IMF has been proven wrong” in Malaysia’s case during the 1997-99 Asian financial crisis. Razak, whose keynote address at CII Partnership Summit-2010’ inaugural was read out by Malaysian Minister for International Trade, Dato Mustapa Bin Mohammed, said during that crisis his government’s decision to peg the exchange rate of Malaysian ringgit to that of US dollar was received with “horror” by the IMF.
However, Malaysia responded to the crisis in its own way and took a series of measures to stem the outflow of capital and to stabilise its currency, which turned out to be the “most judicious” given the circumstances, Razak said, adding, the IMF’s diagnosis and prognosis was proved wrong. Malaysia was thus affected to a “much lesser extent” by the Asian financial crisis than other countries which accepted IMF’s prescription, he said. Though globalisation was about change, countries differed in their ability to respond to this change, he pointed out.
Hence, “we have to recognise that nations differ in their capacity to change and they must be given the space to arrive at their own solution, whether on issues related to subsidies, the removal of trade barriers or financial deregulation,” he said.
DH News Service