Malaysia Successfully Demonstrates Ability To Emerge From External Shocks, Challenges

KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has successfully demonstrated its ability to emerge from external shocks and challenges more than once, said Bank Negara Malaysia (Malaysia's Central Bank) Governor Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz. Zeti said the country was in a stronger position to manage external challenges due to its economic restructuring and financial reforms undertaken in the recent two decades. "Malaysia has, over several decades, demonstrated time and time again the ability to emerge from commodity price shocks, financial crises and the spillovers from disruptions generated from other parts of the world. "For each respective major shock confronting our economy, Malaysia has registered V-shaped recoveries, essentially reflecting the economy's flexibility to adjust and the early and comprehensive policy response," she said in her speech at the two-day Invest Malaysia 2015 conference here Thursday. The conference is jointly organised by Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia's Stock Exchange) and CIMB Group. She said Malaysia's solid fundamentals also included the relatively low rate of inflation, the low levels of unemployment, ample international reserves, high rate of savings and the manageable levels of external debt with the majority of debt being of medium- to long-term tenures and with more than 40 per cent being denominated in ringgit. The current operating environment was indeed challenging due to uncertainty around the timing of policy changes in the global economy affecting Malaysia through trade and capital flows, she said. However, she said, the local economy was projected to remain steady this year, with growth anticipated to be between 4.5 and 5.5 per cent, driven by domestic demand, which in turn, would be anchored by strong private sector activity that now accounted for 70 per cent of the economy. On the investment landscape, Zeti said, the emergence of new growth areas, such as renewable energy and semiconductors in fast-growing segments such as automotive, medical devices and telecommunications, has enabled Malaysia to be plugged into the global supply chain. "Investment in the manufacturing sector has moved towards higher value-added activities, shifting from basic production and assembly to producing goods which have advance applications such as in the automotive and healthcare sectors. "Not only has this generated high-skilled jobs, but these investments have enabled greater technology transfer and higher adoption of automation within the Malaysian economy," she said. -- BERNAMA