The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) welcomes Ministry of Economy’s initiative to draft a document entitled “New Deal for Business” (NDFB) to boost business confidence, stimulate economic growth as well as drive national digital transformation. The initiative is undertaken through the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (PEMUDAH) platform.

We believe that the New Deal for Business framework would present an enduring and committed public-private partnership to grow the economy, creating conducive conditions for investment, innovation and business activities, and boosting high quality jobs related to technology sector.

The NDFB should also facilitate and speed up the implementation of projects relating to FDIs, domestic direct investment and bilateral MOUs signed recently on investments and special economic zone.

Both Government and businesses must be in sync to deliver growth and investment with a culture of collaboration and mutual trust. Maintaining an open and honest dialogue between the public and business sector is crucial to provide certainty, clarity and consistency in regulations for businesses.

The government’s role should be confined to creating conducive environment and facilitating investment activities as well as enforcing fair rules for business practices. The Government should focus on removing unnecessary bureaucracy and trade barriers, including easing regulatory and compliance costs.  This would facilitate the expansion of business activities, both by domestic direct investment and FDIs and create growing employment opportunities for the country.

The authorities and agencies at all levels (Federal, state and local authorities) need to work together and demonstrate leadership to actively facilitate investment through ease of doing business practices. These include nurturing better Government-business relationship to tackle business pain points; building capacity to address information and competency gaps that are prevalent in facilitating domestic investment; developing public-private engagement and partnerships so as to have proper business impact analysis before introducing new policies or regulations.

It is commendable that there would be assessment on local authorities to evaluate their ability to transform processes and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy.  The Government could consider making the performance ratings of individual local authorities available to the public as there would be performance monitoring mechanism.  This would inspire performance driven culture.

It is equally important that the Government must ensure transparency, consistent and clear rules/regulations that limit administrative discretion to minimize unproductive rent seeking and corruption. We must persistently push zero tolerance for corruption, which adds to hidden business costs.

The ACCCIM, being a member of PEMUDAH Taskforce would contribute effectively to the planning and implementation of this new deal.