PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s rubber exports for this year is set to surpass RM27 billion, 10 per cent more than last year’s RM24.79 billion, thanks to higher global demand, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong.
"We're experiencing good rubber exports this year. This is due to higher global demand. So far, in the first seven months of this year, we’ve already shipped out RM19.1 billion," he said.
"It's not because of the weakening of the ringgit against the US dollar. As you can see, the ringgit has been strengthening and it is trading at around RM4.20 to US$1.00," the minister explained.
Mah was speaking to reporters, here today, after presenting scholarship awards from Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council (MREPC) to 29 deserving students pursuing their tertiary education at local universities.
Since 2010, there are 205 MREPC scholars who had benefitted from a disbursement amounting to RM6.73 million. Of that total, 53 have graduated and working with rubber-related companies.
Also present was Supermax Corp Bhd group managing director Datuk Seri Stanley Thai. Representing medical glove exporters, he said there had been increased exports as big buyers in the US are buying more natural rubber and nitrile variants from Malaysia, instead of vinyl gloves from China.
Earlier, Mah had launched the MREPC Industry Linkage Fund (ILF), themed ‘Enhancing Competitiveness Through Research Collaboration’. It supports the development of the high value rubber products by nurturing talents in market promotion and product development. The ILF award either fully funds a research or given out as a matching grant.
The full research grant would be awarded to projects which offer industry-wide solutions, while the matching grant would cater to specific projects that would benefit individual companies, especially small and medium enterprises.
The ILF funds research in latex products, rubber products for use in automotive, industrial sector, infrastructural and construction sectors. More importantly, the industry is putting money into ways to raise productivity via increased automation and usage of smart factories fitted with sensors, cloud computing, Internet-of-Things.
On the upcoming Budget 2018 to be tabled in Parliament on 27th October 2017, Mah said his ministry had written to Finance Ministry to extend the reinvestment allowance for manufacturers beyond 2018.
“We hope it will be extended beyond 2018 as the manufacturers have long-term plans for their businesses, and they need some time to implement them,” he said.
Under the 2016 Budget, the government has accorded reinvestment allowance to manufacturers, with up to 60 per cent of the allowed capital expenditure for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Medical gloves, catheters and condom manufacturers have and will continue to pump in a lot of money to automate many processes along its production lines.