Malaysia’s economy is growing and renewed confidence following the recent elections may bring even more investors and business travellers to the country. LAURA LEE reports.

THERE is renewed optimism in Malaysia’s economic future under the new administration of new prime minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The squeaky-clean leader has vowed to rid corruption, bring in more transparency and accountability, and has been firm in dropping “ego” mega projects, moves that may send new confidence signals in the corporate sector.

The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) at its recent ninth corporate economic briefing revised the country’s economic growth rate to 6.7 per cent this year, surpassing the central bank Bank Negara’s projection of six to 6.5 per cent and the World Bank’s projection of 5.5 per cent for Malaysia.

MIER’s executive director, Dr Mohamed Ariff Abdul Kareem, said the manufacturing sector would remain a key driver of growth for 2004 while the services sector was expected to grow 5.6 per cent compared with 4.1 per cent a year ago.

In its Q1 2004 Business Conditions Survey, the Business Condition Index (BCI) gained 2.1 percentage points to 112 points, the highest level achieved since Q2 2002. The BCI’s fifth consecutive climb showed increased optimism in Malaysia’s economic future in the short term.

MIER’s Tourism Market Survey Report for the first quarter also had the Hotel Operators Index climbing 0.9 percentage points to 134.5 points, the highest first quarter reading recorded since the survey started in Q2 2001.

And although the Travel Agencies Index slipped to 124.9 points from 138.1 points for Q4 2003, the index was still up by 37.1 percentage points on a year-to-year basis.

Overall hotel occupancy for the first quarter was satisfactory, with 33 per cent of respondents to MIER survey claiming higher occupancies, boosted by an increase in inbound travellers.

Reservations was up in the first quarter, with 44 per cent of hotel operators experiencing higher bookings compared with 22 per cent in Q1 2003.

The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur’s general manager, Mr Stephen A Cokkinias, sees 2004 as a strong recovery year aided by the prime minister’s efforts towards a clean government and a conducive environment for business.

Mr Cokkinias said: “Our key markets continue to be Singapore and Hong Kong but we also see strong representation from other Asian countries besides Australia, the UK and the Middle East.”

Diethelm Travel Management (Malaysia) managing director, Mr Manfred Kurz, said industries in Malaysia seemed to be doing well with corporate ticketing back to normal and insurance companies in particular very eager to organise incentive trips for their staff.

Marco Polo Holidays’ executive director, Ms Jiun Kiew, said more foreign direct investments were coming into Malaysia and the major industries likely to bring in more business travellers would be telecommunications, infrastructure, utilities, finance, insurance, oil and gas and the automobile industry.