Azmin: Malaysia’s open trade and investment policy remains

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 26 — Malaysia will continue to adopt an open trade and investment policy, Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said.

He said the policy would play an important role in the country’s pursuit for greater integration with Asean, leveraging the region’s large population size of more than 600 million people.

“In the context of an increasingly networked global economy, Malaysia will also continue to leverage our cultural endowment to further boost our competitive advantage.

“In this regard, Malaysia has successfully organised the Kuala Lumpur Summit (KL Summit), which saw the successful conclusion of 18 agreements, whereby leaders from across the Muslim world agreed to channel more direct investments towards the development of their economies,” he said in a statement today.

Azmin said cooperation was forged during the KL Summit in the areas of media, centres of excellence, youth exchange, defence and security, as well as food security.

“Among others, an agreement was concluded between Felcra Bhd and one of Qatar’s largest livestock and dairy farm owners, Baladna Food Industries, for a large-scale dairy venture to further strengthen the nation’s food security,” he said.

He said a document exchange involving aerospace components manufacturer Composites Technology Research Malaysia Sdn Bhd (CTRM) and Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) also took place on the sidelines of the KL Summit.

“These initiatives undertaken by the government to build up resilience and boost endogenous sources of growth, along with better commodity prices and a stable ringgit, will pave the way towards enhancing Malaysia’s economic prospects,” he said.

Azmin said the hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit and Visit Malaysia Year in 2020 would also be catalysts for growth, particularly for the tourism industry.

“Thus, the ongoing policy initiatives will further enhance Malaysia’s economic fundamentals and continue to support the ringgit going forward,” he said.

He added that the government would continue to ensure that concerted efforts are undertaken to propel Malaysia towards achieving a more sustainable and equitable growth in line with the shared prosperity agenda. — Bernama