The economic collapse of a nation is not the concern of a speculator who is primarily out to make money, billionaire George Soros said in Kuala Lumpur last night.

He made this statement when responding to a question at a special fund raising dinner for the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Alumni Society of Malaysia.

Malaysian LSE alumni president Dr Munir Majid had earlier asked whether Soros thinks about the welfare of the countries when he speculates their currency.

"Were you not concerned that some economies could collapse as a result of currency speculation?" asked Munir, who is also Malaysia Airlines chairperson.

The open society advocate Soros answered: "Frankly, I was not concerned. I was in those markets to make profits and I was well rewarded.

"It's only when I use my own money that I am concerned with the welfare of the world."

"But for the market [...] you cannot expect the market participants to be concerned. That's the job for the authorities, not the job of the speculators."

He absolved all responsibilities and pinned the governments of East Asian countries as those that could have avoided the 1997 economic crisis.

"I had forced attempts in the Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit in December 1996 to January 1997. We were not sellers of either the baht and ringgit after that. So there is no way we could have caused the crash.

"What was obvious to us was the peg was unsustainable and also perhaps obvious to the authorities. It would have been less painful to abandon it," he told the crowd of 300.

New book launched

Hungarian-born Soros was most known when former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad blamed him for undermining Southeast Asian economies by destabilising their currencies.

A bitter public dispute ensued and escalated to name-calling during the East Asian financial crisis of 1997-98.

However, the two adversaries met and have mended their ties after an hour-long private meeting yesterday.

At last night's event, Soros was seated between Finance Minister II Nor Mohamed Yakcop and YTL chairperson Francis Yeoh.

Dino Patti Djalal, the spokesperson for international affairs in the Indonesian President's Office, was also present to comment on Soros' new book, The Age of Fallibility.

The seven-course dinner which costs RM10,000 per corporate table was also attended by high profile personalities like CIMB chief executive officer Nazir Razak, Khazanah Holdings chief executive officer Azman Mokhtar and Kota Baru MP Zaid Ibrahim.

Soros who arrived on Thursday, is scheduled to leave today after meeting a broad range of people including business, government and civil society leaders.

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