ASEAN BUSINESS ENTITY STATUS WILL CREATE MORE MALAYSIA-BASED ASEAN CHAMPIONS - NAZIR RAZAK

By Mikhail Raj Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s bold move to introduce ASEAN Business Entity (ABE) status in the 2026 Budget reflects his strong commitment to advancing regional integration and giving real substance to Malaysia being the “gateway to ASEAN”.

Tan Sri Nazir Razak, the chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) Malaysia, hailed the move, expressing the hope that the step would create more “ASEAN champions to be based in Malaysia”.

The special ABE status would enable publicly listed companies and mid-sized companies to expand their operations in the Southeast Asian region.

“It is exciting to see Malaysia take the lead in introducing the ASEAN Business Entity (ABE) framework,” he told Bernama today.

It was Nazir, as chairman of ASEAN-BAC Malaysia, who first proposed ABE’s establishment to foster greater regional integration.

Nazir said that this undoubtedly is a bold move by the Malaysian government under the leadership of Anwar, who is also the current chair of ASEAN.

“While the initial emphasis of ABE is on enabling the flow of talent across ASEAN, the framework is powerful, as it can evolve to ease the flow of capital and operational functions across borders but within companies,” he said.

Nazir elaborated that the creation of the ABE status would reduce dis-synergies for ASEAN multinationals and encourage the development of intra-ASEAN supply chains.

'Dis-synergies' refers to a situation where two or more companies work together, yet their overall performance is worse than the sum of their individual performances.

“We hope that this milestone will first pave the way for more ASEAN champions to be based in Malaysia, and then that other ASEAN governments follow suit to bring the region closer to being a single production base for businesses,” said Nazir.

Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, announced yesterday, when unveiling Budget 2026, that the government will introduce the ABE status, coordinated by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC).

The move would facilitate the movement of skilled talent, thus supporting the growth of Malaysian companies in ASEAN.

Anwar said the status would be given to publicly listed companies with a broad market footprint in ASEAN and mid-sized companies with the potential to expand their operations.

-- BERNAMA