Budget 2023 should emphasise promoting EVs

 

From Ahmad Shahir Abdul Aziz

The Malaysian economy registered a stronger growth of 8.7% for 2022, exceeding the estimate of 6.5% to 7% made in October last year.

This growth performance is an indication that private spending and investment is recovering, there is a decrease in unemployment, and the ringgit is strengthening.

However, the growth for this year is expected to moderate to 4.2% as the environment will become more challenging amid more treacherous global headwinds.

This situation will be a test for the new government under the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim. He will have to outline its new strategy to support economic growth, as well as boost private sector confidence in the growth momentum achieved in 2022 for the sake of the well-being of the people.

As a relatively small country by population, Malaysia’s economy largely depends on trade and foreign direct investment (FDI).

Therefore, among the main challenges that need to be resolved by the government is, of course, putting correct and stable policies in place to make the nation a conducive place for investment and business.

This includes offering lucrative incentives, especially in new and fully untapped sectors such as electric vehicles (EV), in which the country is lagging behind compared to neighbouring countries like Thailand and Indonesia.

Even though the Low-Carbon Mobility Blueprint 2021-2030 has been announced, the current status and implementation of this policy is rather unclear.

Moving forward, Malaysia needs to provide a clear and up to date EV policy and direction, whose objective is to support the growth of the EV ecosystem, especially charging infrastructure, regulations and standards, and lucrative incentives to invest in making the country an EV production hub for this region. - FMT

The writer is senior manager at the Perak Investment Management Centre (InvestPerak).

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.