This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 9, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will only sign the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement if the terms are beneficial to the country, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said.

“Malaysia will only enter into the TPP if it is mutually beneficial, on terms that we can agree to,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Sustainability Symposium 2015 organised by Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

He said the agreement touches on various issues such as the bumiputera policy, government procurement and state-owned enterprises.

“The text will be finalised over the next 30 days or so. After that, it will be made public and it will go for tabling in Parliament,” he said.

He added that the Ministry of International Trade and Investment (Miti) led by Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, had done well in terms of initiating Malaysia’s position on the TPP.

“I must say that it wasn’t easy, having been briefed [by] Datuk Seri Mustapa from time to time, but Miti has done a good job,” he said.

Earlier, during his keynote address, Abdul Wahid emphasised the importance of having a sustainable economy in order for Malaysia to transition into an advanced economy.

He also urged the corporate sector to fully embrace the adoption of sustainable business practices, beyond the listing requirements and reporting documentation, especially amid the recent challenging economic environment.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported Abdul Wahid as saying that Malaysia is far more resilient compared with neighbouring Indonesia in dealing with any economic crisis much like the way it dealt with the Asian financial crisis in 1997/98 due to its diversity and well-developed financial system, among other factors.

Abdul Wahid said Malaysia’s other strong points were that private investments which grew to 64% of total investments in 2014 increased further to 71% in the first half of this year with 97% of government debts denominated in ringgit.

“Malaysia’s financial system is well developed with sizeable equity and debt capital markets,” Bernama quoted him as saying, in rebutting a JP Morgan research note entitled “Is Malaysia taking the Indonesia Detour? by pointing out that the fundamentals of the two economies were far apart. 

“Malaysia’s economy is far more diversified where its dependency on commodities as at 2014 [before the significant drop in commodity prices] is much less, for example at 18% in terms of GDP (gross domestic product), 23% in terms of exports and 30% in terms of government revenue,” he said.

“Having led Maybank which has sizeable operations in Indonesia, I would say the economic fundamentals between our countries are very different,” said Abdul Wahid, who was the chief executive officer of Maybank — the fourth largest bank in Southeast Asia by asset size — before being appointed a minister.

“Indeed, I would say that Malaysia is more resilient now compared to our position during the previous crises and certainly more resilient than the neighbouring country mentioned if you were to do a side-by-side comparison.

“On my part, we will continue to focus on the fundamentals and let the market decide on the appropriate ‘pricing’ for our financial markets,” Abdul Wahid said.