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Azmin: Malaysia’s trade still going steady in face of pandemic
KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — Malaysia’s trade performance in 2021 has indicated a strong productive recovery with trade having grown by 43.2 per cent to RM190.76 billion, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.
He said the performance, recorded in April, is a marked improvement compared to April last year.
“Exports have been in excess of RM100 billion for two consecutive months, reaching RM105.62 billion in April this year, surging by 63 per cent as against April 2020,” Azmin said during the launch of the Productivity Report 2021 earlier today.
He characterised it as a major achievement as this is the fastest growth since February 1998 and the eighth-consecutive month of year-on-year expansion since September 2020.
“The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2021 ranked Malaysia’s global competitiveness at 25th place from 64 economies, an improvement from the 27th position in 2020. In the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 ranking, Malaysia recorded second position among 190 economies in dealing with construction permits.
“Nevertheless, while this shows that reform initiatives are working, there is still more to be done to ensure that our regulations are agile enough to respond to changes,” Azmin said.
Noting that the Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted lives and livelihoods, causing major disruptions to industries and businesses and adversely affecting productivity growth, the minister said it is now crucial for supportive regulations and coherent operational frameworks in order to create business environments that are conducive for firms to operate productively and competitively.
“The reset button has pushed the regulatory reform agenda to a new level towards improved policymaking and regulatory delivery.
“This ensures that our businesses can capitalize on the opportunities in the global marketplace in sync with the dynamism of current and emerging market trends,” he said.
To this end, Azmin said the ministry’s Malaysia Productivity Corporation continues to work closely with the Special Taskforce to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) to reduce the unnecessary regulatory burdens on existing and new businesses.
“Regulatory frameworks must be designed to enable technology innovation, ensure open and non-discriminatory business environments, protect consumers and workers, and tackle the unintended consequences of disruption.
“Sustainable productivity growth depends on productive capital, people, and the workforce. Measures to reshape Malaysia’s workforce to be more dynamic, agile and resilient are vital to reboot productivity,” he said.
Azmin added the National Investment Aspirations (NIA) aimed at establishing Malaysia as a high-income nation and the primary destination for high tech and high impact industries, smart manufacturing and related services, and the provision for total solutions for advanced technologies, has already begun to bear fruit.
“We are already seeing the first fruits of the NIA with RM80.6 billion worth of approved investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors for the first quarter of 2021. This translates into a surge of 95.6 per cent in approved investments compared to the same period last year,” he said.
Source: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/06/30/azmin-govt-regulations-need-to-be-more-agile-to-accommodate-rapid-changes/1986041