Reforms in Malaysian Services Sector

Dato’ Seri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, announced on 10 March 2009 that the Government will take steps to liberalise the services sector to attract more investments, bring in more professionals and technology as well as to strengthen competitiveness of the sector.

The services sector is an important component of the Malaysian economy, contributing 55 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008 and accounting for 57 percent of the total employment in Malaysia. Thus, the Government is targeting to tap the full potential of the services sector and raise its contribution to 60 percent of the GDP.

As such the Government has decided to immediately liberalise 27 services sub-sectors, with no equity condition imposed. These sub-sectors are in the areas of health and social services, tourism services, transport services, business services and computer and related services.

As part of the measures to develop Malaysia as an international Islamic financial hub, the legal profession will be liberalised to allow up to five top international law firms  with expertise in international Islamic finance to practice in Malaysia.

The services sector is targeted to be a new growth sector of Malaysian economy which will, through liberalisation, provide the impetus to enhance its contribution to economic growth. For more information please visit http://www.matrade.gov.my/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_hide_liberal_not_hamper.