The partnerships are the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Stressing that it is his personal opinion, the DAP MP for Bangi said this would send a strong signal that Malaysia was indeed open for business and serious in its efforts to attract FDI.
“At the same time, this will strengthen our industrial base, with complementary domestic policies such as our Industry 4WRD or Industry 4.0 plan,” he said in a statement.
Ong said the 15.4% growth in exports in February – the strongest performance in 28 months – and other trade statistics were not really influenced by direct government policy, especially in the short term.
“If the government is serious in its efforts to increase FDI and external trade, on a longer and more sustained basis, our focus should be on ratifying RCEP as well as CPTPP,” he said.
He said the sooner RCEP was ratified, the sooner both local and international players in Malaysia can enjoy the benefits of the pact from a trade perspective in areas such as greater uniformity and clarity on the Rules of Origin classification.
He also said senior minister Azmin Ali must be bolder in setting a deadline to ratify CPTPP to show that Malaysia was committed to raising the quality of FDI and its manufacturing, labour and environmental standards.
“While I recognise there are concerns with regards to CPTPP and the much debated Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, multinational companies which are operating in Malaysia have very little incentive to take the Malaysian government to ‘court’ because they want to continue to work with the government on matters of common interest,” he said.
Ong said an open and honest debate by various stakeholders was needed to clear the air on the ISDS matter, which was always brought up whenever CPTPP or other free trade agreements (FTA) were discussed.
He said the government as well as the opposition must explain how these FTAs would benefit the general public.
He also said domestic policies must be strengthened to provide assistance to industries that would be negatively impacted by these FTAs.
“The international business community and their domestic partners and stakeholders in Malaysia are watching very closely and carefully,” he said.