Intensify marketing efforts into Islamic, Asian markets, says minister

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian businesses must intensify marketing efforts into Islamic and the greater Asian markets, including Asean, China and India, which remain a good source for market and investment opportunities, said Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop.

"Businesses must tap the opportunities to broaden beyond domestic borders to regional markets. Our strategy should also increasingly focus on the Islamic markets, particularly the Middle East region.

"Indeed, the importance and potential of these regions allow us the opportunity to benefit from the growth of their markets," he said in his speech at the seventh Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

Nor Mohamed said while the government would continue to support and facilitate growth, entrepreneurs must have the flexibility to respond strategically in the more difficult environment.

"Entrepreneurship is all about high performance, value creation and more importantly, being resilient in the face of challenges.

"I am confident that Malaysia will be able to manage and ride the effects of current external volatilities by leveraging on our comparative advantages and our strong fundamentals," he said.

Nor Mohamed said while Malaysia had somewhat been insulated, with the gross domestic product (GDP) growing at a respectable rate of 4.7% in the third quarter of the year, the goverment was mindful of the consequences on the country's real economy of a prolonged global economic slowdown and more so, the risks of a global recession.

"In such an environment, the drivers for sustained economic growth will have to come from a more robust domestic sources of economic activities," he said.

Nor Mohamed said the government was committed to ensure the domestic environment remains conducive for a more vibrant private sector initiatives and would continue to focus on maintaining liberal policies as well as the provision of increasingly attractive investment incentives.

He said under the government's RM7 billion fiscal stimulus package, an investment fund of RM1.5 billion had been set up to provide grants, soft loans and equity funding to the private sector to finance high value add and high impact projects in strategic sectors.

The stimulus package include RM2.5 billion for construction related projects as well as RM2.1 billion for maintenance and implementation of small projects.

"In addition, to enhance companies' competitiveness, progressive steps continue to be taken towards lowering the cost of doing business, including gradual reduction in corporate tax rate, removing import duties on cement, iron and steel products as well as lowering of fuel prices," he said.

Nor Mohamed said strategic opportunities had emerged in the domestic economy, particularly in new growth areas.

He said the recently launched regional economic development corridors would provide greater investment opportunities for both domestic and foreign investors, with RM10 billion being allocated under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, of which RM6 billion was earmarked for 2009.

"While the government will take every effort to ensure a conducive business environment for enterprises, entrepreneurs must seize these opportunities to grow and prosper their businesses.

"In today’s globalised business environment, to remain resilient to withstand the economic cycle, businesses must strive to be differentiated, and move up the value chain. Businesses must continue to adapt and innovate as well as take advantage of new technologies to stay ahead of the curve," he said.

Nor Mohamed said as the quality of human capital was increasingly becoming the cutting edge of innovation and competitive advantage, businesses must continue to invest in human capital to create a bigger pool of skilled and competent manpower with high integrity and work ethics.

"This is, indeed, critical to support the performance of enterprises, particularly in a more challenging and competitive environment that we face today," he added.

The Edge Daily