20100429 0934 Malaysian Economic News.

The government targets to double the average investments the nation receives in a year to as much as RM140bn within the next five years (by 2015) under its upcoming 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP). Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the country receives an average of RM70bn worth in investments annually with foreigners contributing more than half of the inflow. (Malaysian Reserve)

The government hopes the ratio between foreign direct investment and domestic investment will be at 50:50 from the current 70:30 during the 10th Malaysia Plan period, says International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. He said the government was taking various initiatives to woo more domestic investments into the manufacturing and services sectors. (Bernama)

The Kedah branch of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism has given an assurance that there is sufficient supply of sugar in the state and denied that the price would go up due to the government would retract the sugar subsidy. "The shortage could have been due to traders and small and medium entrepreneurs rushing to buy sugar in large quantity because of the rumour that subsidy would be withdrawn," it said. (Bernama)

The Terengganu government urged the Agriculture and Agrobased Industry Ministry to find ways of tackling the drop in paddy price which is causing problems for farmers. It said the current paddy price was only RM890 per metric tonne compared with last year's price which could go as high as RM1,200 per metric tonne. (Bernama)

Malaysia is looking forward to expand bilateral trade ties with Finland as total trade between the two countries is quite "small", said PM Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. Currently, Malaysia-Finland total trade volume stood at US$600m. "Finland is known for its innovation, we hope Malaysia could be the centre for innovation for this part of the world," Najib added. (Bernama)

International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir said that it is crucial to develop local technopreneurs with innovative and cutting edge technologies to position Malaysia as a developed nation by 2020. He said development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the information technology and communications (ICT) sector was regarded as one of the key drivers for the country's economic growth in the digital era.

• However, the poor ICT utilisation among local SMEs and their inability to fully tap into advances in ICT are causes for concern that is impeding the national development. (Bernama)