KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 20): The government on Wednesday said that it plans to strengthen trade facilitation and capital market connectivity among Asean countries, as Malaysia prepares to assume Asean chairmanship next year.
Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said that Malaysia is looking to focus on creating mechanisms to enhance trade, improve payment systems and foster deeper connectivity across regional capital markets.
“Malaysia will be chairing Asean next year, and as part of the parcel of our deliveries is that we want to work together with Asean tournaments to make this market actually become much stronger, much more connected together,” Amir said during the fireside chat at the 63rd World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) general assembly and annual meeting hosted by Bursa Malaysia Bhd (KL:BURSA).
The minister noted that Asean is a powerful block — consisting of Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — with more than 700 million people across the region.
“At the moment, the penetration of cross-Asean trades is lower than what we anticipate or believe it can be,” he addressed.
On the capital market, Amir said that this will include facilitating mutual recognition of initial public offerings (IPOs) across the Asean region.
He believes that facilitating the capital market would deliver capital and more opportunities to potential businesses in the region.
Additionally, Malaysia is also committed to address Asean’s transition to a greener economy, especially in terms of capital rising, said Amir.
“If we can get over the mental block of understanding that [a] connected Asean achieves a bigger cake for everybody — so we can work together as one group — then I think the future forward for Asean is brighter,” he said.