US ambassador to Malaysia Brian D McFeeters – Photo from US Embassy in Malaysia website
KOTA KINABALU (Aug 20): Investors from the United States (US) will not be budged by the political crisis that is currently plaguing the country.
During a press conference with the Sabah media, US ambassador to Malaysia Brian D McFeeters said that the US had been following the matter closely but opined that the issue will not affect the American investors.
He said that the US Embassy in Malaysia is in constant dialogue with the American investors.
“We follow the issue very closely. We are very interested in the outcome and we understand that there might be developments even today,” he said in the virtual press conference, which was held on Friday.
According to Brian, the US Embassy did not detect any concern from the American investors a most of them tend to stay in Malaysia for the long term.
“They are here for the long term. They employ a lot of Malaysians. They are coping up with Covid-19 just like everybody else by we don’t have them coming to us saying ‘Malaysia is too unstable so we have to leave’.
“That’s not just something we hear,” said Brian.
When asked whether the political crisis had made his job difficult, Brian said that the US Embassy is always ready to assist any country, even when it is going through governmental changes.
“It makes it interesting. I think people in my field would want to work with foreign governments even when they go through governmental changes. This is tremendously interesting to us.
“We don’t know the decision of the new Prime Minister but in any case, we will continue to work on our priorities – security cooperation, People to People and joint-economic prosperity,” said Brian.
He said that this is based on the shared values between the US and Malaysia, which included respect for human rights, freedom of expression and media freedom.