I just cannot understand our government's business policy. We have this multi-billion dollars Free Zone in Port Klang and it resembles a ghost town .

I must confess I have never been there or even bother to discover its location. If it can be successful in Dubai why is it a failure in Malaysia. The deputy PM has announced that Malaysia is an Islamic state, whatever that means, why is it that the predominantly Chinese Singapore are able to make a concerted effort to court the Middle Eastern businessmen.

They have started a Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore and institutionalising Arabic as a language option for the island state's secondary and university students. We also read that many high-profile visits by the Crown Prince of Bahrain Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa when he launched a new local Middle East group set up by the Singapore Business Federation. The Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Adbul Aziz Al-Saud and King Abdullah of Jordan have also visited them.

Why can't Malaysia, with all its Islamic connection, court such people to visit our Port Klang Free Zone and our mega Iskandar Project in Johor? What is so attractive to the Middle Easterners to look at Singapore and not Malaysia? The Singaporean are negotiating with the Gulf Cooperation Council to make Singapore the launching pad for Islamic banking in the region. Malaysia, I would imagine, should be the first choice for the Middle Easterners, not Singapore.

I do hope some of you bright economist or political analyst out there can explain to all Malaysians this paradox? If at all it is a paradox.