KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional will sell its assets which are "not useful" to pay off its debts, says Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The Prime Minister said that no decision has been made yet as to whether Khazanah will be selling all its assets.
"They are just studying whether they should (be sold), but no decision has been made," said Dr Mahathir.
He also said that it is better for Khazanah to sell assets which are not useful.
"Those that are not useful to us will be sold in order to raise funds to overcome our debts. We must remember that the previous government borrowed more than RM1 trillion.
"That is a burden for us because they borrowed and the money isn't invested but it is hidden.
"If the money is invested, we can go to the company and get the money back, but we don't know where the money is.
"So, at the moment, we have to pay from our taxes or sell assets to pay our debts.
"That is the burden left by former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Now he talks a lot but all these things were carried out, including buying ships from China," said Dr Mahathir.
He said this after an event officiating the Heritage and National Culture Charter at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia co-organised by Albukhary Foundation and Budi Foundation here Friday (Sept 20).
He also reiterated that he created Khazanah to buy shares allocated to bumiputras, but added that they went beyond that.
"This isn't the original mandate for Khazanah, but now we are trying to go back to the original objective," said Dr Mahathir.
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