Deloitte: Malaysia Has Competitive Edge To Get More Chinese Investments

PETALING JAYA (Selangor, Malaysia), Nov 9 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is a competitive location for shared service centres as it has a good pool of talent and infrastructure, and is poised to draw more Chinese investments compared to other ASEAN countries, said Deloitte Malaysia. Country Tax Leader, Yee Wing Peng, said the softening ringgit against major currencies in the region had made Malaysia more compelling as a regional service hub. "Malaysia is well-positioned to embrace more Chinese investments. "Business and language proficiencies inherent within Malaysians provide the ease of doing business with Chinese players and establish high chances to attract Chinese multinationals (MNCs) to set up their regional service centres in Malaysia," he said in an economic forum held in conjunction with Deloitte's annual TaxMax Conference 2016 here Tuesday. Themed "Brave Decisions, Brave Actions", the seminar was attended by more than 600 finance professionals and industry players. Yee said, notably, there were several Chinese MNC developers already embarking on mega mixed developments in Malaysia and they could play a leading role in bringing in more Chinese MNCs to operate in the facilities that they will set up. Some of the major Chinese development projects in Malaysia are Bandar Malaysia, Melaka Gateway, Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park and Forest City in Johor Bahru. "Potentially, the economies of Malaysia and China can be comprehensively intertwined. We were the first ASEAN country to develop a diplomatic relationship with China in 1974, and the room for collaboration is enormous," he said. Yee also noted that the weakening ringgit could be a silver lining for several National Key Economic Areas, mainly in tourism and retail. "Thus, businesses should look at opportunities within these two sectors to further strengthen the country's economy," he added. Meanwhile, Country Garden Holding Co Ltd Regional Vice President, Dr Runze Yap, echoed Yee's positive views on the Malaysia-China dynamics. "Malaysia is a great middle ground between China and the Western countries. "In terms of policy, Malaysia has maintained a very delicate and well-balanced relationship between China and the US," said Yap. He added there were multiple trade agreements that Malaysia had signed with China and other ASEAN countries, so it would definitely attract more investors. Yap said Malaysia had built a very strong momentum in attracting Chinese companies to invest here. "Moving forward, in addition to property development, the presence of Chinese players will also be felt in the manufacturing sector including electrical and electronics, textile and solar power," added Yap. -- BERNAMA