Expats prefer Brunei to Malaysia, Singapore, survey finds

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 — Malaysia’s graft and unattractive tax structure may have pulled down the country’s popularity among foreign professionals, who rated it Southeast Asia’s second best country behind tiny Brunei, according to a revent survey of expatriates.

Malaysia scored 94 per cent satisfaction marks in a survey by the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) of 475 senior executives working for US companies operating in ASEAN countries, and tied with Singapore and Laos to take the second place.

Brunei was the only country in the region to score the full 100 marks for expat satisfaction.

“Malaysian expatriates, after Brunei, are the most satisfied,” AMCHAM president and chief executive officer of Citibank Sanjeev Nanavati told reporters here, although he admitted that the sample size of respondents for the oil-rich sultanate is “quite small”.

“Eighty-one per cent of respondents said that expatriates who are in Malaysia always try to extend their time in Malaysia, which speaks to the point that clearly Malaysia is an attractive destination for expatriates,” he added.

Despite their employees’ apparent exuberance to work Southeast Asia’s third largest economy, their foreign companies were less excited about the business prospects here, and highlighted corruption and Malaysia’s tax structure as their major concerns.

In the chamber’s 2013/2014 ASEAN Business Outlook Survey on Malaysia, 53 per cent of respondents said they were concerned at the level of corruption here while another 41 per cent said they were dissatisfied with the current tax structure.

Sanjeev said it is important to note however, that the respondents had ranked other countries in the region much higher in the corruption category.

In Indonesia, 80 per cent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the level of corruption there.

But the ASEAN Business Outlook Survey also found that Malaysia’s highly competitive value chain, availability of raw materials, and ease of moving products through customs drew top marks among the senior executives polled.

“Malaysia has reported decreased [sic] in availability of low-cost labour compared to five years ago, but companies in Malaysia have moved up the value chain into more value-added development.

“Now Malaysia’s challenge will be continuing to improve the availability of high-value talent to meet these companies’ needs and 2020 goals,” Sanjeev said in a statement here.