Sesi padanan perniagaan dalam program SME Smart Partnership yang berlangsung selama dua hari bermula semalam disasarkan mampu menjana sehingga 800 kontrak perniagaan, membabitkan 650 syarikat dalam pelbagai sektor. Program dua hari itu antara inisiatif memperkasa ekonomi Bumiputera, seperti yang diumumkan dalam Majlis Pemerkasaan Ekonomi Bumiputera tahun lalu. Timbalan Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri, Datuk Ir Hamim Samuri, berkata program membabitkan kerjasama Bank SME itu mampu mewujudkan peluang perniagaan besar bagi pasaran tempatan dan antarabangsa. Kerjasama dengan Bank SME, mengukuhkan rantaian ini, serentak dengan proses padanan perniagaan yang turut membabitkan konglomerat terkemuka. “Seperti program ini, kita ada pembeli antarabangsa iaitu sebuah syarikat yang berpangkalan di Vietnam. “Ini saya lihat agak luar biasa dan ia memberi ruang untuk PKS kita mengembangkan sayap ke luar negara,” katanya pada sidang media selepas melancarkan Program SME...

MINISTRY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INDUSTRY, MALAYSIA MEDIA STATEMENT WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (WEF) EAST ASIA 2014 AND TRADE & INVESTMENT MISSION TO MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES, 21 – 23 MAY 2014

YB Dato? Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry will participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia in Manila and lead a Trade and Investment Mission to the Philippines from 21st to 23rd of May 2014. The WEF is an independent international organization based in Switzerland that is committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, politician, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas and issues. The WEF organises the highly successful WEF Annual Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January every year. The WEF East Asia Forum is a regional extension of the WEF Annual Forum. The first WEF East Asia was held 23 years ago. Manila is hosting this event for the first time. The events in World Economic...

YB MENTERI’S SESSION WITH FOREIGN MISSIONS AND BUSINESS COUNCILS 20 MARCH 2014 YB Dato ‘ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry hosted a special Session with Foreign Missions and Business Councils on 20th March 2014 at the MATRADE Exhibition & Convention Centre. This is the 5th year MITI is organizing such a Session. It is part of MITI’s regular and continuous engagements with foreign missions and the international business communities based in Malaysia to provide updates on Malaysia’s Economic Outlook, trade and investment developments and MITI’s strategic priorities. This year’s Session included a Panel Discussion where some Ambassadors and Business Councils were invited to share their views and perspectives on the global economic outlook for 2014 as well as to seek views and ideas on how MITI can be more effective in improving and enhancing bilateral economic relations. A total of 200 officials comprising Ambassadors/High Commissioners,...

SPANISH businesses are keen to invest in Malaysia and have expressed keen interest in broad sectors, including the high-speed rail project linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said Spain’s investments in Malaysia, although small, still totalled a significant US$2.5 billion (RM8.2 billion) through Acerinox and Tecnicas Reunidas. This, he said, had lifted Spain’s profile in Malaysia.“The flow of investments from Spain marks a diversification in the volume of quality investments we are targeting for in Europe,” he said at a forum on investment opportunities, here, yesterday.Germany, Britain and France are traditionally the main sources of foreign direct investments to Malaysia.For the first half of this year, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority has approved US$64.8 million in investments from manufacturing projects.Mustapa is leading the biggest high-powered delegation to Spain, which included...

KUALA LUMPUR: THE World Bank has ranked Malaysia 18th out of 189 economies for ease of doing business, up two notches from last year, and ahead of countries such as Taiwan (19th), Switzerland (20th) and Japan (29th). The World Bank’s Doing Business 2015 Report, released yesterday, showed the top three performers were Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Bernama reports that Malaysia ranked first among emerging east Asian economies. A new method was used for the ranking because of limitations in the previous mechanism, such as loss of information, inability to track progress and inequality in business friendliness measured in larger countries. The ranking is now based on the distance to frontier (DTF) score — score of country that is ranked No. 1 — rather than the percentile rank. Malaysia’s score edged up to 78.83 points from last year’s 76.84 points. The report looked at 10 areas: starting a business; dealing with construction permits; getting electricity;...

Apec’s 25th anniversary is a good time to assess both the challenges and the opportunities faced by the organisation.

 

TWENTY-ONE leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Coopera-tion (Apec) economies meet in Beijing next week.

It will mark the organisation’s 25th anniversary.

So what has Apec got to show the world besides growing from 12-member economies in 1989 to 21 today?

How effective has it been in driving trade and investment?

What can these high-level meetings actually do to improve the global economy?

If one asks whether Apec’s main goal – easing the barriers to doing business in the region – has been achieved, the answer has to be yes. Here’s why.

To be sure, it’s had a head start. First, it accounts for 40% of the world’s population (2.8 billion people), 47% of global trade and 54% of the world’s real Gross Domestic Product in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Has it succeeded in easing tariff barriers? Again, yes.

When Apec was established in...

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 (Bernama) — The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) is seeking to enhance collaborative research in the semi-conductor industry by looking at opportunities to cooperate with the US-based Semi-conductor Research Corporation (SRC). Mida’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Datuk Phang Ah Tong said in many countries, particularly developing nations, a mismatch between the industry and universities existed in terms of relevancy to graduates produced as well as research undertaken. He said the “irrelevant graduates and research” was a waste, as well as a duplication of resources, with Malaysia not excluded from the problem. Mida, as such, is exploring the possibility of working together with the SRC to enhance and strengthen collaboration between universities and industries in Malaysia, he told reporters at an interview session with the SRC here today. The SRC is the world’s leading technology research company. It was established in 1982 as a...

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 (Bernama) — Total approved investments in the electrical and electronics (E&E) sector is expected to reach RM10 billion this year on the back of the resilient global economic outlook.

 

International Trade and Industry Minister, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said from January-July this year, approved investments in the E&E sector reached RM8.4 billion with 57 approved projects, surpassing the 2014 target of RM5.1 billion.

“Investments are encouraging this year compared with last year…this is a good sign that shows that our economy is expanding.

“The economic growth forecast of between 5.5 per cent and 6.0 per cent this year is very relevant given our exports and investments growth so far,” he said in a media briefing on the E&E sector here today.

Some of the high-impact projects approved include a diversification project in wafer fabrication involving an investment of RM3.2 billion and an expansion project estimated at RM1.5 billion for a high-end...

BEIJING, Nov 9 (Bernama) — Malaysia has called for the reconvening of the World Trade Organisation’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA) expansion negotiations and urged for swift conclusion. Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, reiterated Malaysia’s commitment in concluding the ITA expansion negotiations, at the APEC ministerial meeting here. “We hope to see the implementation of the ITA2 agreement in the shortest timeframe possible as it will bring benefits to our economy and promote trade growth,” he said in a statement here today. The business community has a lot to gain from this initiative, he said. It would also support the government’s efforts at creating jobs, he said. Malaysia’s total trade in information communication technology (ICT) and electrical & electronic products in 2013 amounted to US$107 billion while exports totalled US$62 billion and imports amounted to US$45 billion. The ITA expansion negotiations...

BEIJING Nov 9 (Bernama) — The strong Malaysia-China relations, established 40 years ago, are expected to boost bilateral trade to US$160 billion by 2017. Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, said this was the first estimate made by the Special Monitoring Committee set up on Nov 4 comprising agencies under the ministry with the aim to coordinate and monitor economic activities with China. The committee, which aimed to strengthen Malaysia-China trade, was announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing ties in May. Mustapa said the committee, which would be a one-stop platform to monitor bilateral trade activities, would be chaired by the prime minister and coordinated by the ministry. “The meeting to set up the committee in Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday was chaired by me. The Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to China, Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting is the deputy chairman,”...