PETALING JAYA: Malaysia ranks high as a destination for investments in the Asean region, the latest survey by the Asean Business Advisory Council (Asean-BAC) shows.

Singapore is ranked the most attractive destination for investment with 45 per cent of survey respondents saying they have plans to invest into the nation, followed by Malaysia (42 per cent), Indonesia (41 per cent) and Thailand (41 per cent).

Brunei emerged the least attractive destination for investments, said the survey.

Thailand scored the highest average rating of 6.25 out of 10, followed by Singapore at 5.97, Indonesia at 5.92 and Malaysia at 5.67.

The 2013 Asean-BAC Survey on Asean Competitiveness tracks business sentiments towards the attractiveness of Asean to trade and investments over a three-year horizon and their perception of Asean's efforts to realise an Asean Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015. It was conducted across Asean between May and August 2013.

Respondents included businesses that participated in the previous two waves of the survey, past nominees of Asean-BAC's Asean Business Awards, as well as businesses that had been identified by Asean-BAC council members and Secretariat, national business organisations and local research assistants.

In the survey, businessmen said Asean's potential as a new or growing market for future investments is the region's main draw for investors. Asean-BAC said that the result was in line with the views of respondents in the Economist Corporate Network report, which picked economic growth rates, and size and spending power of consumer population as the two most attractive features for investing in Asean.

The survey also revealed that 52 per cent of respondents said they would invest or expand investments in the region to supply main or leading customers, while 31 per cent said they would do so because of access low-cost production facilities.

Asean-BAC said observations were consistent across all firm sizes and were consistent with responses in the 2010 survey, the last time the question was asked.

Twenty per cent of those surveyed said that access to natural resources was a reason to invest in the region, while 18 per cent pointed to closeness of research and development and innovation.

By thestar.com.my

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