A survey conducted by BAV Consulting and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has ranked Malaysia as the best country to invest in this year, ahead of second place Singapore, India (6th), Thailand (7th) and Indonesia (10th).
The ranking is based on scores from over 6,000 business decision makers on country attributes.
These include corruption, dynamic, economically stable, entrepreneurial, favourable tax environment, innovative, skilled labor force, and technological expertise.
Malaysia scored at least 30 points more than any other country on a 100-point scale.
American publication U.S. News & World Report said Malaysia is one of the top recipients of foreign direct investments and its pro-business policies offer investors a wide range of investments.
READ ALSO:
HSBC Not Shutting Down Malaysia Operations
Bullish Outlook for Malaysia’s IPOs This Year
Four regions were covered with over 21,000 participants from different levels of management but the feedback from business decision makers was given more weightage, compared with the other survey participants, and so their choices for countries placed higher in the ranking.
BAV Consulting is a unit of global marketing communications company Y&R.
Meanwhile, Moody’s Investor Service said Malaysia’s six largest banks in terms of total assets continue to show deterioration in asset quality.
The deterioration of asset quality is due to overseas loan portfolios, weaker profitability from slower revenue growth, and higher credit costs.
The Moody’s-rated Malaysian banks – Maybank, CIMB Group, Public Bank, RHB Bank, Hong Leong Bank, and AmBank – however, remain stable in terms of capital and liquidity profiles.
Such ratios provide cushion from sustained weak operating results.
READ ALSO:
Malaysian China Association Assures Support for Struggling Businesses
Malaysia’s RHB Bank Posts Drop in Q4 2016 Net Earnings
Simon Chen, Moody’s vice president and a senior analyst, said that the Malaysian banks whose gross impaired loan ratios either improved insignificantly or remained flat year-on- year in 2016 included AmBank, Hong Leong Bank and Public Bank.
He said among the banks with big operations that logged higher gross impaired loan ratios in 2016 were Maybank, CIMB Group and RHB Bank. – BusinessNewsAsia.com