Its president, Azman Yusoff, said there were several bumiputera contractors who are of international class with excellent records who can compete in global markets.

“In the global economy, contractors need to operate outside of Malaysia if they want to progress. However, many of them face extraordinary difficulties in daily operations,” he said.

PKBM said bumiputera contractors constantly faced obstacles such as non-tariff barriers, unfair procurement practices, and unequal treatment in the countries they operate.

Hence, the association wants the international trade and industry and foreign affairs ministries to play a more proactive role to help its members overcome such problems.

Azman cited the case of bumiputera developer WZR Property Sdn Bhd (WZR), which is still awaiting full legal settlement of almost RM100 million involving the Maldives government.

He said that in such cases, the Malaysian government should interfere directly with the foreign government concerned.

“The government should not allow a good company to suffer a big loss due to unfair practices.

“In any case, any arbitration should be based on G2G or government-to-business and in line with the law and international best practices to safeguard Malaysia’s reputation and its corporate and business relations,” he added.