MULTINATIONAL corporations and Chinese companies are considering moving their manufacturing base to countries like Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam as a result of the ongoing United States-China trade war.

HSBC Malaysia chief executive officer Stuart Milne said the bank’s clients in China are currently looking at diversifying their manufacturing locations.

“There are a lot of ongoing discussions and they are looking at Malaysia for high value-added manufacturing, and Cambodia and Vietnam for lower value-added manufacturing,” he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Milne said moving their entire manufacturing operations would not be an easy task as it would require companies to rearrange entire supply chains.

However, he said, these companies are already planning how to do so.

“It may require some time for the actual investment and shift in manufacturing to happen,” he said.

Commenting on the bank’s newly launched HSBC Navigator survey, Milne said Malaysian firms remained resilient and opportunistic despite global headwinds such as rising protectionism and trade tensions between the US and China.

About 89% of the companies in Malaysia are positive about the trading environment, significantly higher than the global average of 78%.

He said the survey also highlighted that 91% of respondents in Malaysia were confident that their companies would succeed in the current environment, with consumer confidence being the top factor driving the optimism.

“Only 25% of Malaysian respondents viewed the US-China trade dispute as a hindrance to their businesses.

“In fact, nearly half (48%) deemed the ongoing trade dispute as a business opportunity given the potential to see a shift in regional supply chain patterns,” he said.

Milne said the global survey was done on more than 8,500 businesses across 34 of the world’s major markets from July to September this year.

For Malaysia, the sample size was 200 companies ranging from small to medium and large corporations. – Bernama, November 1, 2018.