Senior Minister cum International Trade and Industry Minister of Malaysia Mohamed Azmin Ali. (Photo: Business Today)The brighter economic prospect was attributable to risingglobal demand, increased public and private sector spending, as well ascontinued policy support, he said in a keynote address at the MalaysianEconomic Summit 2021 webinar on July 13. His speech was read by InternationalTrade and Industry Deputy Minister Lim Ban Hong.
This brighter prospect will also be reflected in therecovery in labour market conditions and higher production in the manufacturingsector, particularly in the electrical and electronics (E&E), and the oiland gas facilities, he added.
Mohamed Azmin believed that due to Malaysia’s openeconomy, enhancement of productivity and economic growth would be furtherunderpinned by an improvement in the global technology upcycle, as well aspolicy support from various fiscal and monetary measures, including theadditional economic stimulus packages.
This positive outlook is reinforced by the World Bank’smost recent forecast, where it projected the Malaysian economy to grow by 4.5percent in 2021, albeit revised down from our own more robust Bank NegaraMalaysia’s projections, he said.
He noted that last year, Malaysia ranked 12th in theWorld Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, 27th in the IMD WorldCompetitiveness ranking and was the fourth out of 17 economies as amanufacturing hub.
It is significant because the services and manufacturingsectors account for 58 percent and 23 percent of the economy, respectively,while the commodity sector accounts for 14 percent, which reflects theincreasing sophistication, depth and complexity of the Malaysian economy, saidMohamed Azmin.
Moving forward, the minister said Malaysia will extenddomestic linkages through integration with the regional economy, and empowermore local businesses to better participate in the global value chain. Malaysiawants investments that are interested to expand across the ASEAN region, andaims to develop new and existing clusters that play a fundamental role indriving economic spill-overs which are the key to delivering holistic ecosystembenefits./.
VNA
