KOTA KINABALU: The Federal Government has set up an Economic Impact Committee that will monitor the trade and investment situation between Malaysia and China following the MH370 incident and recent abduction of a Chinese national holidaying in Sabah.
According to the International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, the decision to set up an Economic Impact Committee was made by the Government yesterday.
The committee, he said, would look at the current situation but more importantly to prepare strategies for the future in order to ensure that Malaysia’s very close and strong ties with China would continue.
He said this when asked by reporters on trade relations between China and Malaysia following the MH370 and abduction incidents.
After officiating at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry’s (MITI) one day Entrepreneurship Development Outreach Program, Mustapa in a press conference said, “For the moment we have seen some impact on tourist arrivals and this is a known fact. On trade we have not noticed anything important yet (and) on investments we do not see any adverse impact.
“That is the current situation but that is something that we need to carefully monitor. The Committee will come up with strategies, communication, personal to personal, other engagement programmes in order to make sure that China will continue to remain a very important economic partner of Malaysia.
“This year we are celebrating 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic establishments we have decided to set up this committee. We believe in a medium to long term we are going to be able to regain whatever we have lost in the last few weeks,” he pointed out.
To a question if the incidents had affected investment flow to Sabah, Mustapa replied, “Yes, there is but the situation is not worrying.
What is important, he stressed, is that the federal government is very committed to ensuring the safety and security of the state and country.
“The Cabinet has been briefed and we are confident that the federal government will do something to radically change the current approach from the aspect of software, asset and personnel. Security, peace and stability are very important for investment, trade and tourism.
“This will give investors and tourists the confidence in Malaysia,” he stressed, adding that to ensure that the state’s and country’s economy continue to develop, more attention must be given to security aspect.
On another matter, Mustapa said that his ministry was undertaking a Workshop Entrepreneur Transformation (WET) programme in Sabah.
According to him, at the moment the workshops in Sabah are not very organised and are said to be causing environmental damage and pollution among other issues.
“So we want to help them transform. We want to help them upgrade so that they can earn more revenue. Today, 10 out of the 90 workshop owners will receive their certificate for the programme.
“Our objective is to increase their profit margin by two-fold in one year, to increase business revenue by 20 percent by one year and to create new business opportunities that is by having five motorcycle dealerships by the first quarter of 2015 and one spare part distribution centre during the same time frame,” he said.
“We are spending about RM1 million in Sabah on this project which means each company will get about RM10,000 in assistance,” he said, adding that these workshops are now employing about 60 people.