Hope For Corporate Malaysia

Malaysia’s newly elected government brings forth new policies and reforms. What does this mean for businesses and corporations in the country?

Hearts were racing, palms sweating - Malaysians were at the edge of their seats awaiting the 14th General Election results last month. For the first time in Malaysia’s political history, the then-incumbent ruling party, Barisan Nasional (BN) lost majority vote to opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan (PH).

While the win was a welcomed change for Malaysia, the country will see a range of challenges and hurdles before flourishing as it did in yesteryears. Economic growth may not falter despite the change in power, as Bank Negara Malaysia reveals its economic outlook to remain strong thanks to the country’s resilient and robust financial system.

However, externally, DBS Bank reveals that growth has turned out to be less broad-based and the outlook now appears uncertain after factoring in the impact of post-election policy changes, despite the Malaysian economy growing 5.4% year-on-year in 2018Q1. It hopes that with the recent zero-rated Goods and Services Tax (GST) effective 1 June 2018, it will raise more consumption.