“Having cultivated friendly relations over the years through strengthening security, accelerating infrastructure development, and promoting trade, investment and tourism; Malaysia is poised to be the hub for potential investors to penetrate the ASEAN market due to our strong economic and financial linkages with the regional economies.”
“Taiwan is Malaysia’s 8th largest trading partner and Malaysia is Taiwan’s 2nd largest trading partner in Asean, after Singapore. Malaysia-Taiwan bilateral trade is expected to exceed RM71 billion this year, as Taiwan government’s New Southbound Policy that was introduced last year focuses on strengthening trade, investment, and private sector collaboration with ASEAN countries, South Asia and the Australasia region.”
“ASEAN economic integration is one of the success stories of modern economics. Amid the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997/98, the regional pack was able to bounce back stronger than ever before. ASEAN is also one of the fastest-growing markets with an average growth rate of 5.3% between 2007 and 2015. Based on IMF forecast, the ASEAN bloc is expected to register growth rates of 4.9% and 5.1% in 2017 and 2018 respectively, and sustain around 5.2% until 2020.”
“ASEAN stands out as a dynamic region – with diverse strengths that continues to benefit its growing population of 635 million people. ASEAN has a combined GDP of USD2.43 trillion in 2015 – 7th largest economy in the world and 3rd largest in Asia. ASEAN also contributed to more than 7% of world exports and the region’s growth continues to surpass that of advanced economies. These strong economic performances have enabled better livelihood of households. Millions have been lifted out of poverty with the significant rise of ASEAN’s GDP per capita, from USD1,054 in 1996 to USD4,000 in 2016. Moving forward, the significant rise in middle-income group and a sizable labor force will lead to greater purchasing power in the ASEAN region.”
“Promoting greater economic and financial integration beyond ASEAN for greater market access and more efficient resource allocation would be a true game changer. ASEAN integration has allowed the region to play a critical role in the global supply chain, cementing its position as a global profit center. Such progress has also enabled and nurtured our own regional champions, many of which have moved ahead to do even more for the ASEAN people. Channeling of funds within regional economies to meet regional demands would reduce ASEAN dependency on other major economies, thus according the region diversification in risk and resilience. Initiatives under the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) provide tailwinds to regional integration.”
“As we aim to strengthen our bilateral ties, both Malaysia and Taiwan have a lot to offer to each other. Premised on Taiwan’s success stories in creating strong “entrepreneurship culture” and their achievement in transforming their SMEs into tech giants, perhaps we can work together on the capacity building to train high-potential Malaysian SMEs via high-level strategic partnership on technology and digital economy.”