Extracted from Malaysia's national newspaper The Star,
10 May 2003

Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad has advised Petronas to consider using the EURO instead of the US dollar to conduct its international business dealings.

The Prime Minister said this was due to the declining value of the US currency. The US dollar has depreciated by 25% already (compared to its value in 2000). "This means that we are earning 25% less (in business deals using the US dollar). And the US dollar is losing value very fast. When we trade using US dollars, we must ask ourselves whether we are getting the (desired) value for our goods or not. If we use the euro, we will gain from the appreciation in value. If in the year 2000, (Petronas) sold its gas in euro, we would have earned 25% more (in revenue from the gas sold)," he told a press conference after opening the RM16.6bil Petronas liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex here.

Dr Mahathir was asked whether it would be wise to use the euro instead of the US dollar as the medium of exchange for international trade following the fall in value of the US dollar recently. He said Petronas recently concluded a deal for an LNG project in Egypt using the euro, which amounted to about 1.6 billion euro (RM6.97bil).

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