KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — A joint survey conducted by the Japanese Chamber of Trade and Industry Malaysia (Jactim) and Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro) showed that most Japanese companies operating in Malaysia are likely to maintain status quo on their investment in the next one to two years, with some planning after Covid-19.

The survey, conducted online from May 12 to May 15 by Jactim and Jetro on measures against Covid-19 by Jactim corporate members, was targeted at 588 Jactim member companies in Malaysia, of which 248 companies, or 42.2 per cent, responded accordingly.

In a joint statement, both organisations said the most popular in terms of “pure expansion and new business development” were in the sectors of food, healthcare, electronic parts for manufacturing business, and logistics and maintenance service for non-manufacturing business.

“About 40 per cent of Japanese companies dipped into working capital/reserve fund as a result of tight cash flow,” it said.

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It said slightly less than 30 per cent of companies responded that they were expecting a decline of over 91 per cent year-on-year sales in April, which was under the movement control order (MCO) period.

Meanwhile, it said most companies responded were requesting for further support in terms of cash-flow policy from the Malaysian government.

“This include ‘expansion of wage subsidy’ and ‘tax relief’ such as corporate tax reduction and easing of the service tax,” it said

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It said these companies also requested for easing and clarification of standard operating procedure (SOP) and swab test, unification or addition of English version of government notifications, as well as long-term support in the form of reintroduction of special reinvestment allowance. — Bernama