Foreign investors concerned with state of M'sia's local institutions: CIMB banker.
Key institutions in Malaysia should be able to function independently which will give confidence to foreign investors, said CIMB group chairman Nazir Razak.
Nazir, who is also Prime Minister Najib Razak's brother, said investors he had spoken to were "concerned about the institutions" in the country.
"The sanctity of our institutions is fundamental to this country. We have always marketed Malaysia as a country with very strong, well-functioning institutions.
"That is the bedrock of this nation and recent events have cast some doubts on the minds of the international community," Nazir told the media after participating in a forum held as part of The Economist Southeast Asia Summit 2015 at The Westin Hotel here on Thursday.
He said that these perceptions on key institutions in the country needed to be addressed as part of the effort to have the ringgit traded at a "fair value".
He said that the recent political situation in the country also had an influence on foreign investor confidence.
"From my perspective, one of the big issues is sentiment – concern of international investors about the political situation in Malaysia. Bringing back this confidence is very important," he said.
Nazir added that he was pleased with Najib's efforts made to engage with the people to get a wider perspective on the economy.
However, he added that there needed to be an environment of openness when receiving and giving feedback on the economy.
"It's very dangerous when people are too flippant when commenting about what's going on. This suggestion that there is economic sabotage - that's not a very useful way of analysing the situation.
"I think that just turns people off and creates a climate of fear so people get apprehensive about speaking up.
"But at the same time we want people to tell the PM what they see in terms of what's going on the ground so he can respond correctly.
"So if you go around saying there's economic sabotage then people would get scared about telling the truth - then we might not have the right prescription," he said.