JAPANESE FIRMS STILL UPBEAT ABOUT MALAYSIA
Jactim says while cost of doing business is rising, it remains reasonable
MALAYSIA remains an attractive investment destination for Japanese firms, said Japanese Chamber of Trade and Industry (Jactim) vice-president Daiji Kojima.
He said the cost of doing business in Malaysia was still reasonable but “other Asean countries are trying to reduce their corporate taxes”.
“Thus, Malaysia’s (cost of doing business) is becoming higher, which is a minus.
“But fundamentally, we believe it is a good place, especially for manufacturing,” he said at the unveiling of Jactim’s 68th business survey for the second half of last year, here, yesterday.
According to the survey, business sentiment among Japanese companies in Malaysia had declined to 29.9 points, the lowest since the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy scandal in 2008.
It found that business sentiment had declined for three consecutive terms.
“More respondents said their pessimism was caused by the United States-China trade conflict, a stagnation of the semiconductor market and increased labour cost,” said Kojima.
Japan External Trade Organisation managing director Mai Onozawa said it initially expected business sentiment to improve in the next six months.
But it would now depend on the severity of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, she added.
She added that Jactim would release a survey to assess the impact of the virus outbreak soon.
“Most manufacturing companies in Malaysia are doing business with Chinese companies. These companies will either have to stop or divert their activities in line with the shrinking manufacturing activities in China.
“Besides that, they are expecting a slowdown in the logistics network in the country and more Customs procedures due to the outbreak, which will impact their businesses,” she said.