Foreign direct investment, already slipping, has plummeted. Year-end export figures reveal the worst growth rate in a decade. As the pain is felt, the rhetoric has hardened in recent months and the old mantra has shifted. As rhetoric grinds its way into policy, new questions and new uncertainties are emerging about what it will mean for what is still Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economy. In interviews with party sources, government reformers and foreign investors and advisers, different pictures emerge.
Foreign investors fear a step backwards.
There is a new feeling in the corridors of power that foreign capital cannot be relied on - an atmosphere that will do little for the chances of the most thorny reforms in sectors like finance and infrastructure. There was a perception that the crisis had created a window of opportunity that would have forced them to open their markets. Instead there has been an opposite move. It is still unclear but the rural policy has to be a bit of a gamble. Another seasoned investor warned the policy appeared to carry little to attract outsiders.