Malaysia will continue to grow this year

Despite the global economic slowdown, the Minister of International Trade and Industry is confident that Malaysia will be able to record growth especially in the manufacturing sector this year. Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said three main factors could help the country avoid a slowdown especially with the uncertain economic situation in European countries. "Firstly, we are not overly reliant on European countries and the United States as most of our trade is with Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, India and China. "Secondly, we have our Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), and thirdly we have our own incentives to boost our oil and gas sector in order to attract more investments," he told reporters after officiating the 40th anniversary celebrations of Intel Malaysia at Intel hub in Bayan Lepas here. He also said Malaysia attracted some RM56.1billion in approved investments in 846 projects in the manufacturing sector last year, from RM47.2 billion in 2010.