KUALA LUMPUR: The Finance Ministry (MoF) expects the recovering commodity prices and improving China's economy, as well as measures taken by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) will help lift the ringgit to RM4.10 against the US dollar by the third quarter of this year.
Deputy Finance Minister I, Datuk Othman Aziz, said prices of commodities such as crude palm oil, rubber and crude oil had shown improvement as compared to last year thus giving a potential additional income from the export market.
"We hope we can get more revenue from exports and this will help in the strengthening of the ringgit," he told reporters on the sidelines of the ACCA Malaysia Sustainability Reporting Awards (MaSRA) here, today.
He said the improving economy in China, Malaysia's largest trading partner, would also contribute to the better export performance.
Meanwhile, he said BNM's measures that require part of the export income to be converted into the ringgit were expected to stabilise the local currency.
Othman said the government's target of achieving RM42 billion in revenue from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was also achievable and realistic based on last year's collection of RM41 billion and increasing awareness on the tax regime among the public and businesses.
"It is achievable because of the cooperation from various sectors," he said.
The ACCA MaSRA was first introduced in 2002 to identify and recognise organisations that report and disclose full environmental, social and governance information.
For this year's edition, local conglomerate, Sime Darby Bhd, bagged the Best Overall Reporting Award while Maybank took the runner-up spot. -- Bernama