THE country's biggest Chinese business body has suggested that Asean put a limit on imports from China as the region's firms are finding it hard to compete under a free trade pact.
rolex replicaThe Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) proposed a 10 per cent cap in the growth of export volume from China.
Its president Tan Sri William Cheng said that many manufacturers were struggling to survive after the China-Asean Free Trade Agreement (FTA) took effect on January 1 this year.
"I wish to suggest that our Minister of International Trade and Industry together with his counterparts in Thailand and Indonesia try to convince the Minister of Commerce of China to regulate the volume of their exports to the affected countries, preferably not more than 10 per cent increase over last year's exports.
"As such, China can still increase their trade volume by 10 per cent, while the local manufacturing industries will not be much affected," Cheng said.
He wholesale colthing made the recommendation at the 1Malaysia Economic Conference launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
However, Najib appeared to have shot down the idea, saying that the private sector needed to be more efficient to take advantage of the FTA.
"It is important to understand that complaints and demands to be shielded from competition will get industry participants nowhere," he said in a speech after Cheng's address.
Under the FTA, China is cutting tariffs on Asean imports to about 0.1 per cent from an average of 9.8 per cent.
The original members of Asean - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - in return agreed to cut import duties on Chinese products to just 0.6 per cent from an average of 12.8 per cent.
The newly created
embroidered patches free trade area involves 11 countries with a total population of 1.9 billion and gross domestic product of about US$6 trillion (RM21 trillion).
Cheng also said that Malaysia should intensify efforts to attract foreign investments, given shrinking investments from the private sector.
It could be done through more extensive liberalisation in the manufacturing; trade and services; transport and storage; and communications and energy sectors.
He noted that the country's level of private investments had been relatively low, at around 11 per cent of gross domestic product annually, in the last 10 years.
In comparison, private investments in other developing nations had been growing 10-45 per cent annually during the decade.
Cheng also urged the government to further help manufacturers in the country enhance productivity.
This includes providing low interest loans and speeding up the process of computerisation, automation and mechanisation.
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