Economic Opportunities for Malaysia with Trump’s Tariffs

Although Trump’s tariffs have negative consequences to many nations, including Malaysia, there ae several beneficial opportunities. And these include: 

(i)          Manufacturing and FDI

Malaysia is a top alternative for manufacturing electronics, semiconductors and medical devices. Malaysia controls 13% of global chip testing and packaging (Intel, Infineon, Bosch etc.) 

The opportunity is there for U.S. firms to shift production from China to Malaysia. The risk in this is the competition from Vietnam and Thailand.

 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

 

(ii)        Tourism Boost

As entering the US is becoming rather unwelcoming, Malaysia has a niche for affordable luxury in medical tourism, eco-tourism and MICE.

 

(iii)      Education and Talent Attraction

US visas for foreign students will be restricted. That’s an opportunity for affordable, quality tertiary and other education in Malaysia. We have branch campuses of Nottingham, Monash, Herriot-Watt, Reading and many other universities. 

Then there is the opportunity to develop our very own R&D clusters at universities or otherwise. Many researchers and talented academic staff may no longer retain a valid visa in the U.S. and/or face funding issues for research at major universities like Harvard, Columbia, Stanford etc. That’s an opportunity to recruit these talents with adequate funding for AI and other new technologies.

 

(iv)      Wealth Migration and/or Business Relocation

With lower cost in Malaysia, the MM2H visa should be promoted for an influx of Americans and others moving out of their home countries. 

 Malaysia also has a pool of English-speaking graduates who could be employed in any business relocation. This is not possible for Thailand or Vietnam to emulate.

 

(v)        Trade and Exports

With CPTPP, BRICs and other alliances, Malaysia could access Canada, Mexico and Japan. In addition, some Chinese export-oriented companies could be replaced by Malaysian ones who have better access to restricted markets. 

In all this, our major competition is Vietnam and Thailand. For us to become a winner from this US protectionism, it’s for us to leverage our strengths and ease-up on bureaucracy and policy inconsistencies. Other nations with key strengths include Canada, Mexico, Germany, UAE, Singapore, Australia/New Zealand and India.