Government under Fire after FDI plummets

FDI narration was controlled by both UMNO and the opposition after UNICEF announced that Malaysia’s Foreign Direct Investment plummets 68% in 2020.

Both UMNO politicians are at the top of the FDI topic influencers list during 22nd to 28th January 2021 as they are the ones that are aggressively questioning the Minister of Finance, Zafrul Aziz and Minister of International Trade and Industry, Azmin Ali.

Both Azmin Ali and Zafrul Aziz are not in the list after the announcement on the 68% FDI drop but they did appear in the previous lists separately.

On 10th January 2021, Zafrul Aziz posted about investor’s confidence in Malaysia but was backlashed by Sven Schneider, CEO of Eurocham but was later defended by Azmin in the following week.

Both Najib Razak and Anwar Ibrahim kept stating that the government should not keep blaming the pandemic as the main reason for the FDI to decline as other countries are also in the same situation.

The news exposure for FDI shot up after UNICEF announced Malaysia’s FDI have dropped down to 68% in 2020.

The issues in the past week are also mainly focused on the opposition aggressively questioning the government about the FDI.

Even though they gain the media exposure, the news sentiment about the topic are mainly negative with a spike on 25th and 28th January.