Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan

Tan Sri Dr. Sulaiman Mahbob“There is no point in liberalisingif such liberalisation may leadto the death of local suppliers.This does not mean that thedomestic players do not needto strengthen themselves.They have to, especially in viewof the increasing pressuresfor more liberalisation in oureconomy”pressures for more liberalisation in our economy. The concern of foreign investorsis quite understandable though. With the current turmoil in the world economy,potential areas of investments are relatively few. That is why the stock marketshave, in some cases, led their economic fundamentals. Malaysia is seen as a safehaven for businessmen and investors. However, the experiences of 1997/1998were still fresh in our mind when we got a big beating on account of being veryliberal in our dealings with the short-term capital financial flows. The internationalregulatory authorities were of not much help then.In this regard, what is the position of banking and financial services? A quick surveyof the sector shows that the foreign presence in the sector is quite significantalready. With the advent of information and communication technology, its exposurein the economy in terms of credit and deposit shares is even significant than itappears to be.On this matter, we have however undertaken liberalisation of the sector along thelines of the national master plan for financial services which is already known to allin the market. Thus, in view of the need to advance its services industries, Malaysiamust liberalise its services sectors in stages. The speed of liberalisation must bein tandem with the capacity of domestic service providers to compete effectively,and that our instruments to promote services are well in place. However, we canbe liberal in areas where our current capacity is non-existent but we may have thepotential to grow the country into a strong business location for such services.In this latter area, we can be very liberal but we need to guide the market playerswith a transparent plan of action.83