POSITIVE OUTLOOK FROM GERMAN INDUSTRY FOR MALAYSIA TOWARDS ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Malaysia Remains as a Preferred Business Destination to German Companies

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 (Bernama) -- Despite the economic downturn because of the pandemic, German companies are still very optimistic when it comes to doing business in Malaysia, according to the latest AHK World Business Outlook Fall 2021 survey results.

Almost 90% of the respondents are doing well or better in 2021 as compared to the previous year and 63% of them have expressed confidence in securing new business within the next year. With the Malaysian government’s National Recovery Plan, German companies in Malaysia are hopeful to recover from the damaging effects of COVID-19 in terms of finances and manpower.

Daniel Bernbeck, Chief Executive Officer at Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MGCC) said, “The Movement Control Orders (MCO) were hard on everyone but German companies are known to be resilient and highly adaptive.”

He added, “Malaysia is unique as compared to other ASEAN countries because of its strategic geographical location, investor-friendly policies, and the good availability of English speaking and skilled technical workers. All these factors, with the help of our friends in MIDA and MITI, allowed German companies to tough it out and make sure that Malaysia remains appealing to new investors.”

Among the major concerns of German companies in Malaysia, ‘economic policy conditions’ by the government is at the top of the list with 71.9% of the respondents considers it as a key interest. This is no doubt due to the fact that initiatives such as the MCO adversely affected the economy by forcing factories to stop production.

Increasing prices of raw materials ranked the second highest with 59% of the respondents highlighting this issue. High prices would hinder companies from being able to purchase the required volume of raw materials to be used in production and it inevitably leads to more issues in meeting customer’s demands. This ties up with the fact that ‘market demand’ is the third biggest concern with 57.9% of the respondents saying it affects them. 

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