We are now stepping into the second quarter of the year.
The first quarter of 2007 was an eternal celebration typify of our nation’s 50 years of independence. Other than the usual festive celebrations, Visit Malaysia Year 2007 and the positive looking Bursa stock exchange market, the Government has certainly contributed their fair share to all causes for celebrations.
These feel good factors for investment started with the relaxation of the FIC (Foreign Investment Committee) Guidelines, then the abolition of RPGT (Real Property Gain Tax) and some exemptions of stamp duty have all catered to revitalize the economic and elevate Malaysia’s competitiveness regionally. Please read the brief report that we have prepared for you in this regard for your better understanding of these matters.
On top of all that is the creation of the Iskandar Development Region (IDR) at Southern Johor as an autonomous special economic zone for growth. Generally, the Government incentives to attract FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into IDR are:
- Exemption from corporate income tax for 10 years
- Exemptions from withholding tax on royalty and technical fee payments to non-residents for ten years
- Exemption from FIC rules
- Unrestricted employment of foreign employees
- Freedom to source capital globally
We shall study more on the IDR and report to you in our next edition of “Delivery Otherwise”.
Meanwhile, we now have a liaison office in Beijing – The Weituo (Skanda) Law Firm, they act for, among others, the consortium of main contractors for the new Beijing Olympic Stadium for the 2008 games. We shall update or CA Web soon to give a brief account of all our overseas offices. Our next targets are Manila, Jakarta and Taiwan. Watch this space for more updates!
Our theme for the Q2 2007 is simply “Once and For All”. This is a plea to the CA Team to do it right and set a solid foundation to build on, the rest shall follow.