KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 — Malaysia offers one of the best returns at low risks for investments among the emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region’s fast-growing infrastructure sector, according to BMI Research.

The independent research unit of Fitch Group said its latest Risk/Reward Index (RRI) showed Malaysia is a “safe bet” for high rewards at manageably low risks due to its fairly even score that balances strong industry growth with an above-average regulatory and operational risk environment.

“While Malaysia does not score exceptionally in any category, it receives above-average scores across the RRI sub-indicators, reflecting its status as a relatively ‘safe’ market with decent opportunities and manageable risks,” it said in a press release of its study.

BMI Research ranked Malaysia fourth in the region, after Singapore, China and Australia as offering the best mix of high rewards and low risks in infrastructure.

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It pointed to the 335km, US$14 billion (RM62.1 billion) Singapore-Kuala Lumpur High-Speed Railway as one of the factors that helped boost Malaysia's industry rewards score to 68.6 out of 100, which it said was the third highest among Asean members.

“Malaysia is also the highest-scoring emerging market in the RRI's Industry Risk and Country Risk indices, reflecting its mature regulatory environment, timely construction and stable economic outlook,” BMI said.

It added that Malaysia is eighth in the world for the same sector.

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The research company noted that construction in Malaysia has shown respectable growth and forecasts it will grow an average of 5.8 per cent annually for the four years.

In comparison, BMI noted that Singapore and Hong Kong nabbed the top two spots on its Asia Infrastructure RRI league tables due to their high urbanisation rates, strong regulatory environment and stable political outlook which outweigh mediocre industry size and growth forecasts.

BMI added that while China and India have among the largest infrastructure industries globally, the foreign companies in two Asian giants face significant operational risks, burdensome regulations and numerous barriers to entry.