SHAH ALAM: Deputy Minister of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir hopes the Budget 2012 will contain measures to control business costs.
“The ease of doing business includes the fact that the cost of doing business should be competitive compared to other countries.
“As such, we hope to see some of those initiatives and incentives put into the budget tomorrow,” he told reporters after officiating the International Islamic Finance and Business Symposium and Halal Carnival at Universiti Teknologi Mara here yesterday.
He also expected the budget to address the problem of access to funding faced by small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) since they contributed a great percentage towards the national economy.
“If the government announces the right formula (to help SMEs get funding), I think the SMEs’ contribution towards the nation’s economy will be very substantial indeed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mukhriz said the acceptance of halal products and Islamic banking tools among Muslims and non-Muslims in the country was growing healthily.
He said many Middle East countries had shown interest to consult with Malaysia concerning new Islamic financial tools that were being proposed.
Many countries had also requested to place the Malaysian halal logo on their products and “this shows the level of confidence in our halal products,” he said. — Bernama