A global management consulting company has placed Malaysia in third position for retail investment worldwide for the second successive year.<\/p>\n
AT Kearney Partner and Head of South-East Asia, Soon Ghee Chua said that the firm\u2019s 2017 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) had placed Malaysia behind China and India, driven by an influx of tourists, higher disposable income and government investments in infrastructure, all of which have provided a boost to the retail industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cRetail sales in Malaysia grew 3.8% in 2016, driven in large part by a 6.1% increase in private consumption despite the headwinds of a depreciating currency,\u201d he said in a statement yesterday.<\/p>\n
He said Malaysia\u201ds retail market continued to grow despite a slight dip in overall gross domestic product growth and short-term pressures of currency fluctuation and inflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe long-term prospects of the sector continue to remain strong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said Malaysia\u2019s successful performance in this year\u201ds GRDI was consistent with the increased interest foreign retailers were showing in this market, in both traditional and online channels.<\/p>\n
\u201cAggressive moves are being made in the convenience segment by companies such as Japanese retailer Aeon which is set to triple its number of stores in Malaysia to 150 within the next three years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Soon said tourism was a cornerstone of the government\u201ds long-term growth plan, and the number of tourists was projected to grow from 26 million in 2016 to 36 million by 2020.<\/p>\n
The numbers were expected to be boosted by Chinese travellers, who have been granted visa-free entry since March 2016, he added.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Soon said that online retail was expected to grow at 23% per year through 2021, driven by electronics and media.<\/p>\n
He said the growth in online retail, along with the rise in mobile phone adoption across the nation, would continue to provide momentum to the sector\u201ds growth and attract further investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government\u2019s continued efforts to position Malaysia as a hub for cross-border e-commerce is another factor that plays an important part in Malaysia\u201ds retail growth story,\u201d Soon said.<\/p>\n
One of the initiatives was the establishment of the world\u2019s first Digital Free Trade Zone in Malaysia, in collaboration with Alibaba.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of the agreement, Alibaba will set up a regional fulfillment hub in Kuala Lumpur and a one-stop cross-border online trading platform, which will allow Malaysia\u201ds small and medium-size enterprises to sell online with transactions fulfilled through Alibaba,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The increased reach of e-commerce was also helped by the government\u2019s US$280mil plan to roll out high-speed broadband access to rural areas, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A global management consulting company has placed Malaysia in third position for retail investment worldwide for the second successive year. AT Kearney Partner and Head of South-East Asia, Soon Ghee Chua said that the firm\u2019s 2017 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) had placed Malaysia behind China and India, driven by an influx of tourists, higher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5535,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions\/5535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}