'Liberalisation will draw back investors'

Published: 2009/09/29

MALAYSIA can return to the radar of foreign investors with further liberalisation moves and by leveraging on its competitive advantages, says an economist.

Dr Jim Walker, the founder and managing director of Asianomics Ltd, an economic research and consultancy company said the recent liberalisation moves by the Malaysian government had certainly sped up the process.

"It is a good move that will certainly help bring foreign investment back into the market," he told reporters after a session at the Ninth Forbes Global CEO Conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Earlier this year, Malaysia liberalised about 27 sub-sectors in services while relaxing some foreign investment rules.



Walker, who has been actively involved in surveys of fund managers in Asia, was a panellist at a session, "Game Change: Taking Stock Of A New Landscape".

The session largely touched on changes around the world, created by the global economic crisis.

He said Malaysia needs to enhance its playing field by leveraging on competitive advantages such as good quality labour resources as well as its expertise in high technology manufacturing and semi-conductors.

"If you look back, Malaysia used to be the second biggest equity market in Asia and foreign investors heavily invested in various areas of interest.

"But, I can't remember people asking about Malaysia for the past two years, which means the country is still far away from the market in terms of investments," he explained.

He was responding to a question on how Malaysia had fared in terms of the government or central bank intervening in handling the financial crisis.

Walker also said it would be tough for Bank Negara to actually offset the entire impact of the global crisis but what it could do is absorb it as best possible, together with other regional central banks.

"Malaysia is a very open economy, so the external environment is extremely important," he added. - Bernama