KUALA LUMPUR: THE Malaysian Investment Development Authority has launched several initiatives to address the country’s rising deficit in services trade current account.
International Trade and Industry minister Datuk Darrell Leiking said Malaysia had been recording a deficit in services trade current account for the majority of the last few years. In 2017, the deficit stood at RM22.8 billion.
“Malaysia’s major sources of services exports were travel especially on higher inbound tourist and other business services such as professional and management consultancy services, as well as telecommunications, computer and information services.
“Services imports, meanwhile, were mainly derived from higher payments for travel, transport and construction,” Darell told reporters on the sidelines of the National Investment Seminar 2018 here today.
He said while exports of services had been in the increasing momentum since 2010 (increased RM47.7 billion within the last seven years), corresponding imports had accelerated at an even faster pace with a value of RM77.1 billion, resulting in the widening of deficit in services trade current account.
One of the initiatives is the development of the i-Services Portal, a single market place to link investors and companies interested to source for domestic services with our local services providers.
Darell said small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can also expect that access to financing will be reshaped by the development of more non-traditional financing avenues and platforms such as crowdfunding, peer-to-peer financing and venture capital.
“Building on the achievements of the existing SME Masterplan, there is going to be new policy, directions, strategies, action plans and programmes to uplift our SMEs to be at par with those in developed countries.
“We aim to equip SMEs with the necessary technology and knowledge in line with megatrends, particularly in the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said.
MIDA chief executive officer Datuk Azman Mahmud said in addition to the i-Services Portal, it had set up a dedicated team under its domestic investment and supply chain (DISC) division to link up companies with potential funders, technology providers, research institutions and business partners.
“The team has identified and collaborated with various institutions. As to date we have engaged with 140 companies and 40 partners providing financial support including private equity firms.
“We would like to encourage interested parties to register your interest with MIDA by reaching out to any of our MIDA officials for further details on this exciting initiative,” he said.