COMMENT | It was an astonishing announcement last Friday by the Statistics Department (DOSM) on foreign direct investment (FDI) into Malaysia - inflow plummeted from RM15.6 billion in the first quarter to RM1.6 billion in the second quarter of this year.

FDI between the first and second quarters of this year plunged 90 percent. Is this a cause for serious concern?

It depends on the reasons for that fall and what constitutes FDI. What makes it confusing is the confounding and astounding claims the government routinely makes of securing hundreds of billions in FDI.

In their much-publicised overseas missions, both Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz...