Mustapa: "I anticipate that foreign SMEs who want to set up their hub here will also seek more opportunities with local counterparts, such as joint ventures and so forth."
KUALA LUMPUR: International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed has urged local industry players, particularly, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to step up their game to sustain their businesses and remain competitive.
He said the extension of the Principal Hub Tax Incentive until Dec 31, 2020, as announced in Budget 2018, would not only make Malaysia an attractive location for more foreign companies to utilise it, but also establish a need for the talent and capabilities of local SMEs to complement the foreign businesses within it.
“We have about 975,000 local SMEs. I anticipate that foreign SMEs who want to set up their hub here will also seek more opportunities with local counterparts, such as joint ventures and so forth,” he said in his keynote address at the National Supply Chain Conference 2017 in Kuala Lumpur on Monday
Mustapa said the Principal Hub Initiative introduced in May 2015 had approved 27 applications from multinational companies to establish their regional and global headquarters in Malaysia.
The initiative had also resulted in business spending of over RM230 million and utilisation of local ancillary services worth around RM20 million annually, as well as the creation of high-valued jobs.
On Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), he said Malaysia was on Monday attending a chief negotiators meeting in Tokyo, Japan, with 10 other countries on proceeding with negotiations without the United States.
“The meeting is to provide concrete proposals to ministers to consider the TPP issues during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam, in two weeks time,” said Mustapa.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) chief executive officer Datuk Azman Mahmud said that in the first six months of the year Malaysia recorded an additional RM65.4 billion in approved investments in the services, manufacturing and primary sectors, involving 2,294 projects, while creating over 61,900 potential jobs.
From 2012-2016, he said Malaysia recorded RM1.03 trillion in investments in the three sectors, involving 29,717 projects and creating 886,592 employment opportunities.
On Monday's event, Azman said Mida, as the principal investment promotion agency, looked forward to the spillover benefits from strategic business linkages resulting from it, particularly the development of Industry 4.0.
So far, 171 potential business linkages had been arranged from the conference series, the last of which was held in Sarawak on Nov 22.
The one-day conference organised by Mida, covers various sectors including parts, components, raw materials, logistics, packaging, warehousing, maintenance, engineering and information technology services. - Bernama
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