Malaysia almost lost a huge investment from Saudi Aramco due to the unpatriotic attitude of certain quarters who channelled incorrect information on this country to the Saudi Arabian oil company, said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said Saudi Aramco was initially reluctant to invest in Malaysia after being fed with information that Malaysia had purportedly been placed in the politically risky category.

He said Saudi Aramco was also given information that Malaysia was not a stable country, its Employees Provident Fund was almost bankrupt and that the government was unable to pay the salary of its public servants.

"This is because there are people who are heartless, their motive is political but the victims are the Malaysian people," Najib said when launching the Negaraku Expresssion event at Dataran Putrajaya today.

He said only when given valid information that Malaysia was a successful country and ranked A, Saudi Aramco's trust in Malaysia returned and Malaysia received an investment of RM31 billion from the oil company.

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) had on Feb 28, signed an agreement to buy shares with Saudi Aramco worth RM31 billion to enable the Saudi Arabian oil company to purchase 50 percent equity in cracking and refining assets under the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project in Pengerang, Johor.

Najib said the RM31 billion investment for Malaysia would be meaningful for young people as there would be job opportunities and a brighter future for them.

"(However), there were people giving false information which as the American President (Donald Trump) had said were fake news.

"What happened was that we almost lost the good fortune," he said.

Najib said the perception towards Malaysia needed to be corrected so that the country's image was at a level where it should actually be.

- Bernama