© Nikkei Markets
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 19) — Malaysia’s federal government will encourage investments and establish factories in rural areas through state-run Malaysian Investment Development Authority to help erase poverty and shrink rural-urban divide, the deputy trade minister said Friday.
The government’s targeted subsidies, welfare schemes and entrepreneurship programs will help alleviate poverty, Ong Kian Ming said at a conference.
“The idea here is to empower people in rural areas to take advantage of online, cross-border markets,” he said.
He said MIDA will continue to work on incentivizing foreign and domestic direct investments to set up factories and operations in less developed areas.
“We can work with state governments to build niche clusters based on local resources and advantages,” he said. “This is part of the strategy to narrow the urban-rural divide.”
The government welcomes high-tech and clean investments to create jobs, he added.
“We want to stress that investments should be high tech and pollution free, provide small and medium enterprises opportunities to work with them and create jobs for locals,” Ong said.
– By Pei Ling Gan
– Edited By Abhrajit Gangopadhyay