MNCs, China firms mull Malaysia as manufacturing base

MNCs, China firms mull Malaysia as manufacturing base

Published on: Friday, November 02, 2018

Kuala Lumpur: Multinational corporations (MNCs) and Chinese companies are considering moving their manufacturing base to countries like Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam as a result of the ongoing US-China trade war.

HSBC Malaysia Chief Executive Officer Stuart Milne said the bank’s clients in China are currently looking at diversifying their manufacturing locations.

“There are a lot of ongoing discussions and they are looking at Malaysia for high value-add manufacturing, and Cambodia and Vietnam for lower value-add manufacturing,” he told a press conference after the launch of the bank’s “Navigator: Now, next and how for business” survey here on Thursday.

Milne said moving their entire manufacturing would not be an easy task as it would require these companies to rearrange their entire supply chain.

Regardless, he said these companies are already doing a lot of planning on how to do this.

“Therefore, it may require some time for the actual investment and shift in manufacturing to happen,” he said.

Commenting on the newly-launched survey, he said Malaysian firms remained resilient and opportunistic despite global headwinds such as rising protectionism and trade tensions between the US and China, with about 89 per cent of the companies in Malaysia being positive about the trading environment, significantly higher than the global average of 78 per cent.

He said the survey also highlighted that 91 per cent of respondents in Malaysia were confident that their company would succeed in the current environment, with consumer confidence being the top factor driving the optimism.

“Indeed, only 25 per cent of Malaysian respondents viewed the US-China trade dispute as a hindrance to their business. – Bernama