THE Covid-19 pandemic has brought with its devastating economic repercussions, possibly the harshest that we have seen in recent history. This has necessitated us to strike a delicate balance between safeguarding the health of our people while protecting their economic interests.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has predicted that the global economy over the next two years will remain highly uncertain, similar to the predictions from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Being located in the Asia-Pacific rim, in the centre of many Asean countries, Malaysia has the privilege to remain as an attractive investment destination particularly with the favourable investment environment, including the availability of excellent infrastructure, telecommunication services, financial and banking services, supporting industries as well as a big pool of talents with skills and trainable workforce.
This reveals when Malaysia maintained its strong position globally, ranking second-highest in South-East Asia and 12th out of 169 countries for trade connectivity in the DHL Global Connectedness Index (GCI) report in 2019.
For the first six months of 2020, Malaysia recorded a total of RM64.8bil worth of investments in the manufacturing, services and primary sectors, despite the multiple headwinds on the global front. These investments involved 1,725 projects and will create 37,110 employment opportunities.
Sources: The Star