The government is enhancing foreign trade guidelines with stakeholder input and global best practices to protect local businesses and ensure market competitiveness.
KUALA LUMPUR: Ongoing efforts to enhance the Guidelines for Foreign Participation in Malaysia’s Distributive Trade Sector will incorporate stakeholder input and global best practices.
Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali said the move is crucial to ensure policies remain relevant, competitive, and impactful while safeguarding the sustainability of local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
He added that the Cabinet approved the establishment of a Special Task Force led by the Ministry of Finance on February 6 to outline specific improvement measures.
“The committee’s role is to identify enhancements in policies, legal frameworks, monitoring, and enforcement to address concerns over the risk of foreign goods being dumped in the local market,” he said when winding up the debate at the Dewan Negara.
In a separate infrastructure update, Deputy Minister of Works Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said the Request for Proposal for the East Coast Expressway Phase 3 project will be finalised this year.
The project will proceed through a Public-Private Partnership via competitive bidding without requiring government funding.
Initial studies indicate the LPT3 will span 122 kilometres, connecting Kampung Gemuroh in Terengganu to Tunjong in Kelantan to complement the existing LPT1 and LPT2 networks.
On healthcare digitisation, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib highlighted that 412 health clinics nationwide are now equipped with the Clinical Management System cloud computing system.
She said the ministry aims to digitalise 137 more clinics this year, with full implementation across the remaining 848 clinics targeted by the end of 2027.
The system rollout, which began in 2024, is designed to improve operational efficiency, strengthen data governance, and reduce reliance on manual record-keeping as part of a broader Digital Medical Record integration plan.
Regarding workforce development, Deputy Human Resources Minister Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan said the ministry is reviewing a proposal to fully digitalise the foreign worker application process.
This initiative aligns with the 13th Malaysia Plan’s target of reducing foreign workers to 10% by 2030 and 5% by 2035, with stakeholder engagement continuing to balance industry needs with local workforce protection.
The Ministry of Defence also participated in the debate, with the Dewan Negara session scheduled to continue tomorrow.
