Malaysia Will Continue To Grow This Year, Says Minister

By Kenny Teng Khoon Hock GEORGE TOWN (Penang, Malaysia), March 10 (Bernama) -- Despite the global economic slowdown, the Minister of International Trade and Industry is confident that Malaysia will be able to record growth especially in the manufacturing sector this year. Mustapa Mohamed said three main factors could help the country avoid a slowdown especially with the uncertain economic situation in European countries. "Firstly, we are not overly reliant on European countries and the United States as most of our trade is with Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, India and China. "Secondly, we have our Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), and thirdly we have our own incentives to boost our oil and gas sector in order to attract more investments," he told reporters after officiating the 40th anniversary celebrations of Intel Malaysia at Intel hub in Bayan Lepas here Friday. He said ETP will be the main driver of investment growth for 2012 and the government will ensure that the growth will match last year's. He also said Malaysia attracted some RM56.1billion in approved investments in 846 projects in the manufacturing sector last year, from RM47.2 billion in 2010. "I am sure we will be able to maintain that investment number and at least match RM56 billion in investments if not better," he said. He said a number of projects are in the pipeline, adding he believes that matching last year's performance will not be too challenging even during the global economic slowdown. Meanwhile, Mustapa said he is confident of Intel Corporation's commitment to playing a significant role in helping Malaysia maintain its competitiveness in the manufacturing, innovation and services sectors. He said Intel Malaysia is already accelerating the shift towards higher value-added products with high-technology and capital-intensive activities. "This is in line with the government's vision to create a knowledge-based economy through the transformation and innovation of the manufacturing sector in Malaysia," he said. -- BERNAMA