Malaysia in the new transformation era

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented disruption to the global economy and world trade, with production and consumption scaling back across the globe. Most of the affected countries were under lockdown and Malaysia was no exception. Malaysia, however, was fortunate to be able to enter the “recovery phase” at a rate of knots after the government introduced the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March. Regardless of the situation, Malaysia had continued with its investments and businesses post COVID-19. To further sift through this matter, a webinar titled “In the New Transformation Era - Malaysia, Your Next Destination” was jointly organised by China-ASEAN Business Association (CABA) and UTAR on 30 June 2020 via Zoom.

Speaking at the webinar was Managing Partner of Reanda LLKG-cum-CEO of K-Konsult Taxation Sdn Bhd Koong Lin Loong JP, ANS. Koong is also currently the national council member of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM), the chairman of ACCCIM SMEs Committee and the head of Taxation Taskforce. The webinar was moderated by UTAR Institute of Management and Leadership Development (IMLD) Director Prof Dr Cheng Ming Yu.

 CABA President Tan Sri Lim (centre) welcoming the participants to CABA-UTAR webinar series

Welcoming the participants to the CABA-UTAR webinar series, CABA President Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Lim Gait Tong said, “I would like to thank all the participants for joining us this evening and also I would like to express my warmest gratitude to UTAR President Ir Prof Dr Ewe Hong Tat and UTAR IMLD Director Prof Cheng for putting the effort in organising the CABA-UTAR webinar series.”

“Since the occurrence of COVID-19 pandemic, the world economy had been very depressing. According to our statistic in May, the trade volume has decreased by 27.8% and our export has come to the lowest point in 11 years. The statistic also showed that the China-ASEAN bilateral trade volume has slightly increased to 240 billion USD. ASEAN is still the largest trading partner for China and we can see that ASEAN is better than the US and other European countries” he said.

He added, “Today we are very honoured to have Koong Lin Loong JP, ANS to be our speaker. He will share with us a clear analysis of the post-COVID 19 pandemic economies and how we can bring Malaysia’s economy to a better situation after the pandemic. I hope all the online participants will be able to learn something from this webinar,” he added.

Prof Cheng introducing the topic and speaker

Prof Cheng said, “In 2020, the COVID-19 has created a big impact on our country and our government. The MCO started on 18 March 2020 and now we are moving to the “recovery” stage. Malaysia had been affected seriously due to this pandemic but we can still see great macroeconomic opportunity in Malaysia. On the matter of how are we going to see this as an advantage, let us hear it from our speaker.”

Kong during the webinar

Kong’s sharing was divided into two parts; he presented the “World’s Economic Hub from the West to the East” for the first part and “Invest in Malaysia: What You Should Know?” for the second part. He spoke about how the economy affected the businesses, the free trade agreement between ASEAN & China, Malaysia as a competitive principal hub location for ASEAN and company’s structure & taxation.

He said, “The economy is now actively moving from the west to the east. In the last century, the economy was heavily focused on the west and the biggest economic entity was America, followed by China is the second place. In the last century, people were talking about the west economy, but now, people are talking about the east economy. China was able to counter America because of the trade war between China and the US and all of our businesses now are cross border.”

“I would suggest you to read “The World Is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman. This book briefly explains the history of 21st century and analyses globalisation. I do agree that the world is flat. In my personal opinion, the economy was slanting a little to the west in the last century, but now it is slanting to the east. The economies in the east are rising, and in our land, we are able to see that the economy of South-East Asia is improving,” Kong said.

The location of Malaysia is strategic hence it became the best investment location

Sharing on why Malaysia is able to attract investors, Kong said, “We have the upper part of ASEAN which include Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. These are called the Mekong river economy; while the lower part of ASEAN consists of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines. Malaysia offers the most strategic location as it is situated in the centre between the upper ASEAN and the lower ASEAN, this makes Malaysia the best investment location. Based on a research by InvestKL, the 11 industries that have advantages of investing in Malaysia include consumer technology, intelligent technology, renewable energy, pharmaceutical technology, medical equipment, electronic and electrical, mechanical engineering, agricultural science and technology, automobile, chemical and aerospace.”

Based on Atkearney's research on Malaysia International Ranking, all the recognition that Malaysia get will lead Malaysia to become a better investment country

Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park and Xiamen University Malaysia showing the bilateral trade between Malaysia and China

Kong sharing the list of 500 biggest cooperation in China that have invested in Malaysia

During the MCO period, the Malaysian government came up with four economic stimulus packages totalling RM260billion and one economy recovery plan totalling RM358billion to boost the economy   

Malaysia working on huge Kuala Lumpur development projects to attract more investment

E-wallet is now growing in Malaysia

Kong explained, “E-wallet may have taken five to ten years to expand in Malaysia but because of COVID-19 pendemic, Malaysia has caught up with e-wallet. It has become a trend these days due to its convenience and hygiene purpose. In my opinion, China investors should consider E-wallet opportunity in Malaysia and invest in it.”

Malaysia came up with Tax incentives known as PENJANA for the benefit of investors

Kong said, “The Malaysian government gives license for new investment by offering tax incentives for the companies. For example, when a foreign company invest RM300million to RM500million in Malaysia, they can enjoy zero tax incentive for up to ten years. And if the company invests more than RM500million, they can enjoy tax-free holiday up to 15 years. And with this 15 years of tax-free holiday, the investors are allowed to take back their profit to their home country.”

Towards the end of the session, Kong concluded that the best time to invest in Malaysia is now which is post-COVID 19. The World Bank foresees that Malaysia will become a high-income nation in the next ten years. Malaysia is equipped with the most modern infrastructure, first world standard medical service and etcetera. The cost to form a company in Malaysia is lower compared to other countries in ASEAN and the property price is also attractive for international investors. Besides, investors will not face any language barriers when they invest in Malaysia as Malaysia is multiracial and multilingual. 

The webinar was followed by a Q&A session between the speakers and participants.

CABA, a non-profit and non-governmental organisation, is a business promotion group that coordinates the communications between chambers of commerce, industrial associations, trade institutions and enterprises within China and ASEAN, under the framework of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area to promote the trade and investment cooperation in this region.

The full video of the webinar is uploaded on “China-ASEAN Business Association” Facebook page. Please click https://www.facebook.com/Official.CABA/videos/270245701077997/?v=270245701077997 if you are interested to watch the full video.

To read CABA-UTAR Webinar series on “Post-Covid Economy: Thoughts on what China and ASEAN can learn from each other”, please click https://news.utar.edu.my/news/2020/July/01/02/02.html

 



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