He said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had approved the bond’s issuance.

“It is up to the minister of finance (Lim Guan Eng) because he manages (the Samurai bond). This time, Japan offers a lower interest rate of 0.5% compared to 0.63% on the previous Samurai bond, ” he told reporters in Kyoto today while on a three-day working visit.

Asked about the opinion of financial experts, who had described the new bonds as being risky, Mahathir responded by saying that he had never agreed with experts.

“Some say it is dangerous for us to use the Samurai bond because it may go up, which is a possibility but if we do not change, we use loans with 6-7% interest rate, it will put pressure on us,” he said.

He wanted to proceed with the issuance but will seek expert opinion on the matter. “We have to listen to the opinions of the experts because I am not an expert … I am not even an economist … so my opinion on the economy is not correct, but somehow our country managed to be developed when I was the prime minister.

“However, we cannot take on debt from one source, we must have many sources because if the one source is problematic, we will have another (source),” he said.

Asked about the amount to be issued, Mahathir said it would probably exceed the first issuance.

Malaysia issued its first round of Samurai bond in March worth 200 billion yen (approximately RM7.34 billion) with a 10-year maturity.