KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — A BMI Research study highlighted Malaysia as a top destination for investment in its power sector that outperformed heavyweights China and India.

The Fitch Group unit’s global risk and reward index (RRI) attributed Malaysia's high rewards and low risks score to the country’s stable economic and political environment, as well as well-developed regulations for the power sector, such as a clear energy policy, strong access to finance and well-developed grid infrastructure.

"Malaysia's buoyant macroeconomic outlook and projected robust growth in power capacity and generation result in outperforming rewards scores as well.

"Coal capacity is set to be the driving force behind Malaysia's power sector expansion, as the government looks to diversify its gas-reliant power mix and capitalise on cheap coal feedstock in the Asia region,” BMI Research said in a statement.

BMI Research also found that the overall Asian power markets outperformed the global RRI, appearing as a strong market with relatively lower risk factors.

"Risks on the whole are relatively low compared to other regions across the world; however, the prevalence of state-owned utilities, inefficient grid infrastructure, difficulties accessing finance and underdeveloped energy policies will serve to dampen industry risks scores across a number of markets in the region,” it said.

As such, BMI pointed that Asia's score for industry risks was only marginally higher than the global average.

In the list, Australia was ranked second while China's and India's power sectors were tabled fifth and ninth respectively.

The RRI studies the global average of the industry and country rewards versus risks factors, polling 20 countries.