FMM, ASEAN BAC MALAYSIA SHARE 12 INITIATIVES FOR ASEAN CHAIR WITH OVER 40 BUSINESSES

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 (Bernama) — The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) today hosted the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) Malaysia briefing to share 12 key initiatives for Malaysia’s ASEAN chairmanship year with over 40 business organisations.

Among others, the ASEAN Business Entity (ABE) - a key initiative by ASEAN-BAC Malaysia - proposes that ASEAN member states offer operational flexibility to ASEAN-based companies, particularly regarding the movement of talent, capital, and back-end outsourcing.

ASEAN-BAC Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Nazir Razak said there needs to be a business category for ASEAN, beyond local and foreign, so that companies anchored in the ASEAN market can operate with ease and circumvent the fragmentation challenges confronting businesses that try to scale in this region.

FMM president Tan Sri Soh Thian Lai said businesses are crucial partners in shaping ASEAN's future. “We recognise the critical importance of regional collaboration and the private sector's vital contributions to driving sustainable economic growth and deeper integration within the region,” he said in a joint statement.

The engagement saw the participation of SME industry leaders from diverse sectors across Malaysia, including automotive, food processing, aluminium, plastics, rubber gloves, textiles, iron and steel, chemicals and freight forwarding. The participants raised various issues in ASEAN such as non-tariff barriers, the lack of harmonised standards, foreign shareholding restrictions, the proliferation of new standards, amongst many others.

ASEAN-BAC Malaysia expressed its commitment to “escalate these concerns in its policy dialogues at the regional level as it leads the consultations on behalf of ASEAN’s private sector in 2025.”

-- BERNAMA