MIDA urges companies to leverage on i-Incentives portal

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) urges more companies, both foreign and local, to leverage on its recently launched i-Incentives portal.

i-Incentives is a one-stop centre for comprehensive information on all incentives offered by various ministries and agencies concerning the manufacturing, services and primary sectors.

In a statement, MIDA said, the portal was dynamic in nature as it was responsive to announcements of new incentives and assistance schemes offered by the government, thus allowing the business community to get realtime information on the latest available facilities.

The portal, launched during the Ministry of International Trade and Industry Day on Feb 26, currently features 121 incentives schemes that are managed by 12 ministries and 28 government agencies.

About 55 per cent of these incentives cater to the services sectors, followed by manufacturing at 33 per cent and the primary sector at 12 per cent.

These incentives include tax exemptions, grants, soft loans and other forms of incentives such as equity financing, regional establishment status and training and facilitation programmes.

MIDA chief executive officer, Datuk Azman Mahmud, said the agency, through its Incentive Coordination and Collaboration Office (ICCO), collaborated with key stakeholders in developing the i- Incentives portal, which underscored MIDA’s commitment to promote greater transparency and enhance the ease of doing business in Malaysia.

Azman said these incentives, especially for high impact and strategic businesses, aimed to encourage and support industries to take risk and move up the value chain.

The portal would also enable for a more effective and performancedriven incentive management system, thereby fortifying a cohesive incentive strategy to achieve the national investment and economic agenda, he said.

The i- Incentives portal is accessible via https://incentives. mida.gov.my.

The ICCO, launched in 2015, is mandated to improve the central coordination of all investmentrelated incentive offerings that will ultimately enhance the government’s incentive mechanism by increasing transparency, eliminating duplication and linking to performance. — Bernama