No Agents Please, We are Malaysians

The news article from Press Trust of India is self explanatory. Even the French do not want to kill the Golden Goose. Over here in the land of Malaysia Boleh, agents remained the order of the day. An clear example was the purchase of the Sukhoi Su-30MKM planes from Russia. It was supposed to be a Govt-to-Govt negotiations. However, when the deal is signed suddenly the agent popped. In this case IMG Defence, led by a former minister. So the Rm3 billion for the planes will be paid through the agent. I am not making any accusations here. But even if the 3 billion is placed in FD even in one month, the account owner will accrued about Rm26 million for it.
It was the same with the other multi-billion purchases like the NGPV and submarine projects. I was told that eight agents were involved in the A400M contract purchase (about RM1 billion) during the last Lima.
Perhaps it was our fault (defence journalists) by not asking the right questions during the signing ceremonies of such agreements. So I will try to do the asking next time around with all the purchases to be made during the 9MP.

FRENCH DEFENCE COMPANIES FOR GOVT_TO_GOVT DEALS WITH INDIA
Paris, July 2 (NNN-PTI) — French defence companies, which for the past decade have emerged as third largest weapons and armament system suppliers to India, may now opt for operating under government-to-government umbrella to avoid controversies in mega sales deals.”We may prefer to opt for the system the American companies are doing defence business in India”, a top executive of European defence major said here.The proposal by French companies appears to have been triggered by recent allegations of payment of commissions in the multi-billion euro deal for purchase of Scorpene Submarines. The industry majors are also planning to take up this issue with French President Jacques Chirac.With the recent increase in Indian defence outlay, major French defence companies are bidding for deals to sell sophisticated civil and military radars, jet fighters and other weapons systems.Jean Paul Perrier, Executive Vice-Chairman of the European defence company Thales International said, “There has been no slow down in our interest in India. On the contrary, we are very keen to step up contracts with New Delhi both in defence and civil sector”.He said his company was on the verge of submitting a final commercial offer for the upgrade of Indian Air Force’s 52 Mirage-2000 fighters.Though he did not elaborate, the company is proposing to Indian Air Force to upgrade the Mirage to Mirage-2000-5 or Mirage 2000-9 level.– NNN- PTI