Mapping Malaysia's Resource Centres

21 MAPPING MALAYSIA’S RESOURCE CENTRES As such, Malaysia will see the implementation of strategies to enhance the resilience of the services sector and to give it a competitive edge. It will also promote the migration into high-value and knowledge-intensive services activities. To guide the development of Malaysia’s services sector, the Services Sector Blueprint was launched in 2015. The Blueprint was created with the purpose of unlocking a sector’s potential and transforming it into one that is more knowledge-intensive and innovation-led. Being the primary driver of economic growth, the services sector is expected to grow and contribute to just over half of Malaysia’s GDP, in addition to providing over 9 million jobs. In its role as the national Trade Promotions Organisation (TPO), MATRADE has established a unit that focuses on promoting the following key subsectors in Professional Services: 1. Accounting and taxation 2. Architectural services 3. Engineering services 4. Legal services 5. Quantity surveying services 6. Franchise Malaysia’s services sector has been performing steadily with an increase year- on-year. Generally, Malaysia’s exports of services experienced growth, with nine service components registering increases: travel; other business services; transport; telecommunication, computers & information; personal, cultural & recreational; manufacturing services; financial; and insurance & pension services. A larger surplus in travel and improved deficit in construction, transport, personal, cultural & recreational services, insurance & pension and government goods services collectively contributed to a narrowing of the trade deficit. Trade surplus was also registered for both travel andmanufacturing services. Despite its determination to propel forward, Malaysia’s global market reach is still hindered by non-tariff barriers (NTBs). On the domestic front, the professional services sector suffers from a lack of financing and a limited talent pool, which prevents Malaysian expertise from venturing abroad. To address these issues, Malaysia has looked towards other developed nations and pinpointed sustainability as a critical success factor for the internationalisation of Malaysia’s professional services.