Malaysia’s 2024 economic outlook positive: experts

Malaysia’s Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) on Wednesday held a “Malaysia Outlook Conference 2024: Ensuring Stability Delivers” which attracted researchers, scholars, and the media.

The event included three discussion sessions on the country’s major issues of politics, economics, and the future of the region.

Discussing the future of the country’s economy, experts from the World Bank (WB) forecast that Malaysia can achieve an economic growth rate of about 4.3% this year if this Southeast Asian country can overcome the challenges of balancing economic growth and sustainable development.

Julia Goh, senior economist, vice president of global economics and market research at United Overseas Bank (UOB), said that although Malaysia has had many leadership changes in the past few years, its economy still witnessed many positive signs, with FDI inflows in 2021 doubling compared to the three previous years.

At least 85% of its plan has been implemented and the total project investment approvals reached a record in 2023. In addition, diversifying the supply chains has helped cash flow to Southeast Asia and Malaysia is also a country that benefits from the global supply chain shift.

She said that Malaysia should focus on improving skills for workers, and nurture talents while ensuring rights for all different ethnic groups equally.

Regarding the green economy, scholars at the conference agreed that high costs are a challenge to Malaysia's green economic development goals. A sustainable green economy requires large capital investments in technology. Therefore, Malaysia now needs to research and identify industries and fields that need to be prioritised for immediate development, which will help the country’s production to meet standards set by the European Union (EU)