KUALA LUMPUR: MALAYSIA emerged  the 24th most competitive nation among 148 countries,  ranked   by  the World Economic Forum in its recently released Global Competitiveness Report (GCR). Last year, Malaysia was ranked 25th out of 144 countries. The nation remains the second most competitive Asean country and has improved its position to seventh from 10th among 25 Asia-Pacific countries. GCR categorised the 148 countries in three stages of development, namely factor-driven, efficiency-driven and innovation-driven, based on gross domestic product per capita. Malaysia falls in the transition category, moving from an efficiency-driven to innovation-driven economy. The report noted that Malaysia held considerable advantage and was ranked 10th in its efficiency and competitiveness when it came to the marketing of its goods and services, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed yesterday. The report also held high regard for the country’s...

PETALING JAYA: The Government can now slap emergency import restrictions on certain products to protect local industries under the new Safeguard Act (Amendment) 2012 which came into force on Sept 1. The Ministry of International Trade and Industries (Miti) said the act, an amendment to the current Safeguard Act 2006 (Act 657), allowed intervention by the authorities when local industries were threatened by cheap imports. Under the act, it said Malaysia was allowed to invoke safeguard measures based on the provisions in its bilateral or regional free trade agreements. According to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on safeguards, a member country may take such action to protect specific domestic industries from an increase in imports of any product which is causing, or is threatening to cause serious injury to the industry. Although these measures could not target imports from a particular country, it said quotas could be allocated upon supplying countries, including...

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10– The understanding level on the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement has increased following two series of open day with interested parties involved in the agreement. International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said based on the meeting today, positive impact could be seen among the interested parties who attended the meeting. “This could be due to the longer period for question-and-answer compared with the first meeting on Aug 1, and more than 25 participants had the opportunity to ask questions on the TPP compared with less than six during the earlier meeting. “Through the second meeting, the government was able to explain more clearly on the TPP and the participants were satisfied with the government’s transparency,” he said to reporters after chairing the TPP Open Day here today. He said the participants who were present had a better understanding of the TPP and have started to accept the...

THE Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) is optimistic that Malaysia will maintain its export value for halal products at RM7.8 billion in the second quarter this year. Its minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the country’s halal export activity has shown steady growth over the years despite global economic uncertainties. “Although our overall export activity is impacted by the global economic slowdown of late, I believe halal exports will, at least, maintain its growth momentum if not improve its total value in the second quarter,” he said at the soft launch of Halal Fiesta Malaysia 2013 (Halfest 2013), here, yesterday. Mustapa added that the halal export value for the second quarter will be announced by early October. Malaysia’s halal exports rose by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of this year to RM7.8 billion, from RM7.7 billion recorded in the corresponding period last year. Halal exports contributed 4.6 per cent to the country’s total...

Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed welcomed China’s initiative to further advance APEC Leaders’ mandates on FTAAP to achieve deeper regional economic integration. Malaysia supported a study to be done as it would be a useful analytical work to evaluate not only the potential benefits, but also the impact, challenges and readiness of economies to meet the high standards envisaged in FTAAP. We are very supportive of the initiative to develop a roadmap for FTAAP and are also supportive of the decision to task officials to finalise this roadmap by the end of this year. This initiative however does not imply that negotiations on FTAAP will be launched immediately after the study is completed. APEC as a non-binding, voluntary forum will play a leadership role and provide intellectual inputs into the FTAAP process, and the FTAAP when agreed, will be pursued outside of APEC. FTAAP will not be inconsistent with Malaysia’s participation in the on-going negotiations on TPP and RCEP. On the...

PETALING JAYA, Nov 4 (Bernama) — The open market under the Asean Economic Community (AEC) should be viewed as an opportunity, rather than a threat, says Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. He also debunked fears among sections of the younger generation that the AEC with its free movement of professionals might rob them of employment opportunities. “The perception and fear is unfounded, although we have signed mutual recognition agreements for the free movement of professionals like accountants, engineers, surveyors, doctors, architects and lawyers, subject to domestic rules and regulations, and not totally unregulated,” he said. He said Malaysia has been a net capital exporter for the last four to five years with many Malaysian companies investing large amounts of money abroad. “This has also opened up opportunities for young professional to venture abroad,” he added. He told reporters this after officiating the closing of the...

BEIJING, Nov 8 (Bernama) — Malaysia has expressed support for China’s initiatives to advance the process of taking concrete actions towards the realisation of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) in a comprehensive and systematic manner. As a middle-income economy, Malaysia has enjoyed the benefits brought about by APEC initiatives in addressing the middle-income trap and pushing economies to achieve higher income status, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. The FTAAP would provide an open market to the nations within the APEC region, including small countries like Malaysia, which has benefited from its technical assistance and capacity building programmes, as well as sharing of best practices among economies, he said. “It is good for our country’s exports and imports, although there will be some losers in the short term, but it will increase the competitiveness in our country and bring long-term benefits,” he said,...

Minister of International Trade and Industry, YB Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed attended the 26th APEC Ministerial Meeting held in Beijing today.  Ministers discussed APEC’s achievements in the past 25 years, including the challenges and opportunities for regional economic cooperation in the coming years. Minister Mustapa expressed Malaysia’s support for China’s initiatives to advance the process to undertake concrete actions towards the realisation of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) in a comprehensive and systematic manner.  In Qingdao earlier in May, Trade Ministers agreed that APEC would remain as a non-binding, voluntary forum and provide intellectual inputs into the FTAAP process.  They also agreed that FTAAP when agreed, will be pursued outside of APEC. FTAAP is envisaged to be a comprehensive FTA that is built on existing and on-going FTAs in the region such as the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic...