Malaysia to continue to strengthen alliances with major trading partners to overcome global uncertainty, crisis
08 Oct 2022 11:36am
Malaysia Finance Ministry - BERNAMA
A
A
A
The Finance Ministry (MoF) said the country would continue strengthening its relations with both traditional major trading partners as well as other emerging export markets while expanding to new sectors of growth that promote value-added activities.
"Malaysia, as an open economy, is susceptible to any global crisis that may impact growth and trade, however, we have managed to weather the storm stemming from its strong and diverse economic foundation and accommodative policies,” MoF said in its Economic Outlook 2023 report released yesterday.
It reiterated that the government's prompt measures and policy responses have reinforced the momentum of economic recovery as well as strengthened economic resilience and reforms.
Citing a United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund’s report, MoF said Malaysia's diversified economy and accommodative policies through government support interventions have cushioned the impacts of the external shocks due to the "3Cs” - Covid-19, Climate and Conflict.
"Apart from Covid-19, the impact of climate change has been more damaging beyond economic factors, while the prolonged Russia-Ukraine crisis with stringent economic sanctions on Russia has led to fragile recovery and intense uncertainty,” it added.
Despite the challenges at the global level, the ministry said more areas have been identified as the country's new sources of growth, which include advanced electrical and electronics (E&E), aerospace, biomass, pharmaceuticals, digital economy as well as chemicals and chemical product industry.
"All these new sources of growth are expected to value-add the upstream and downstream activities to further diversify Malaysia's exports and productive imports that will boost overall trade performance,” it added.
On Malaysia’s trade performance, MoF said that the country’s trade performance continued the upward trend in the first half of 2022 on account of strong external demand.
"This was also driven by Malaysia transitioning into the endemic phase and the reopening of international borders that have eased the flows of supply chain and human mobility which include business travellers and foreign workers,” it said.
The report reiterated that Malaysia acknowledges the importance of strengthening relations with existing major trading partners as well as building alliances with other emerging markets in the region and across the globe.
"In lieu of this, Malaysia continues to support a more liberalised, free, and fair global trading environment by engaging in various international trade policies through bilateral, regional, multilateral, and plurilateral trade agreements, which have always been the cornerstone of the nation's trade strategies, within Asean and around the globe,” the report said. - BERNAMA
