ACCCIM Cautiously Optimistic Of Economic Outlook

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Bernama) -- The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) is cautiously optimistic of Malaysia's economic outlook for 2011 and 2012.

Its president, Tan Sri William Cheng Heng Jem, said Malaysia depended a lot on local investments, and what has happened in Japan was just a temporary setback.

He said Japanese companies might even ramp up output in local factories due to their non-operating facilities in Japan.

"Three months down the road, global economic conditions may improve when Japan starts to rebuild its damaged infrastructures, spurring demand for raw materials," he said at the media briefing on the survey report on the economic situation of Malaysia.

According to the report, ACCCIM members were still cautious over the country'seconomic outlook moving forward.

The respondents were mainly involved in wholesale and retail, manufacturing, professional and business services, construction, finance and insurance sectors.

The majority of them, or 82 per cent, had recorded good sales performance, with 79 per cent expecting their businesses to improve further in the first half of 2011.

However, the respondents cited government policies and the increase in operating cost and price of raw materials as the main factors that would adversely affect their businesses in the second half of 2010.

On the dependence on foreign workers, Cheng said the government and the private sector must join hands to tackle this issue.

"We do not lack manpower as there is a ready workforce in the rural areas. What the government needs to do is to bring the industrial developments there," he said.

In the survey, 78 per cent of the respondents said their businesses were heavily dependent or somewhat dependent on foreign workers.

The survey was conducted in February before the 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan.

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