Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan

At Your ServiceThird, they were even more cautious when it came to financial services liberalisationbecause banking and finance is almost the lifeline of all national economicsystems.Thus one needs to be quite appreciative why services liberalisation has to be stagedand done in the spirit of progressive liberalisation, the spirit of which is embeddedin the negotiations history at the WTO.The position for Malaysia vis-a-vis services trade is even more sensitive. Malaysiais graduating from being a favoured destination of labourintensive industries. Ittherefore needs to strengthen its services sectors, especially in their exportspotential. Malaysia had made two important decisions recently – first, to liberalise27 services sub-sectors, and, second, to do away with the Foreign InvestmentCommittee requirements for mergers and acquisitions, except in areas relatedto national interest industries such as ports and airports, highways, and defencerelatedindustries.In preparing for this change and move, theGovernment has agreed to strengthenthe Malaysian Investments DevelopmentAuthority with powers to promoteinvestment in the services industries such aseducation, health, tourism and professionalservices.Some quarters are not too happy with the Malaysian announcements. Of coursethey wanted much more. Malaysia is always principle-based. Our offer is based onthe need for progressive liberalisation, and our offer will be in line with the stateof our services economy.In other words, we will offer sectors (or sub-sectors) where we can effectivelycompete, and sectors where we need to strengthen with new investments andcapacities. There is no point in liberalising if such liberalisation may lead to thedeath of local suppliers. This does not mean that the domestic players do notneed to strengthen themselves. They have to, especially in view of the increasing82