MALAYSIA will prioritise improving the ease of doing business to lure quality investments, International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said yesterday.

He added that the government will continue to streamline and monitor investment processes closely and in real time through a project management and delivery unit within the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti).

“We will chart the investment journey, from clearing approvals at the federal government level to facilitating at the state authority levels, with a clear timeline, milestones, and tracking of other relevant deliverables to ease businesses realise their investments in Malaysia,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul said Malaysia has much to offer when it comes to business with a skilled talent pool and strong economic fundamentals that are pro-business, prudent and pragmatic.

In the recent Budget 2023, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that a special tax incentive for relocation has been extended for two years until 2024.

“This will continue to attract investors to relocate their businesses to Malaysia and propel our long-term growth through quality investment, technology transfer and capacity building,” he said.

He added that all these developments bode well for investments, particularly in the areas of high technology, innovation, knowledge-based, and skills-intensive industries to explore leveraging and integrating with Malaysia’s domestic supply chain, creating high-income jobs in Malaysia and continue contributing to the growth of the country’s economy.

Meanwhile, Tengku Zafrul said among the issues discussed with South Korea’s trade minister Ahn Duk-geun was to leverage green and digital industries to strengthen collaboration and engagement between private sectors, and government-to-government interaction.

“Maybe, we should have an annual official meeting between the two countries when it comes to trade and investment… South Korea has free trade agreement (FTA) with Asean, perhaps we should look at how South Korea and Malaysia can expand on that,” he said.

South Korea was the eighth largest trading partner for Malaysia with US$26 billion (RM117 billion) in total trade in 2022, an increase of 29.7% compared to US$21 billion in 2021.

In terms of investment, the country is one of Malaysia’s top sources of foreign direct investment in the manufacturing sector, with 374 projects worth US$9.2 billion underway, and generated 46,260 jobs as of June 2022. – Bernama, March 15, 2023.