Liberalisation Likely To Attract More British Investors

Sources: Bernama.Com

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Bernama) -- The United Kingdom welcomes Malaysia's recent moves on liberalisation of the services sector and opening up of the economy, British High Commissioner Boyd McCleary said Monday.

"Malaysia has been very successful in securing inward investment and I know that the UK companies based here are doing well and enjoy operating in this region. I am sure these measures will attract more investments into Malaysia," he said.

McCleary said this during the opening of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) World Conference 2009 held here.

"As the leading consumer economies began to slow down, so did their demand for goods and services and we can see the impact this is having in Malaysia, with a healthy growth of plus four percent in 2008 to a projected decline to minus four percent this year," he said.

The conference, themed "The Global Village -- No Boundaries, No Limits", focuses on managing global profitability in the downturn, outsourcing as a competitive strategy, managing costs, shaping the future, and the impact of the current economic crisis on globalisation.

According to McCleary, the current economic crisis has made clear that "in today's global village we are much closer neighbours than we perhaps realised".

"We have to help our neighbour put it back up again, partly to help the neighbour, but just as importantly to protect our own interests," he said.

"But the good news is that in today's global village the rain can return to sunshine and there are increasingly positive signs in the global economy which will Malaysia equally quickly back to growth once the much anticipated recovery begins in earnest," he added.

This will involve not just trade flows but also investment flows, McCleary said, adding that the UK remained the most popular destination for inward investment into Europe and the second largest recipient of inward investment in the world after the United States.

"In the last financial year alone, the UK won over 1,700 inward investment projects, no mean achievement when the global economy was in such turmoil," he said.