Liberalisation of services in malaysia: is malaysian professionals ready to compete?
In 2012, the Malaysian Government announced liberalisation of 27 services sectors, including selected professional services. This announcement came as a surprise to the industry players because they have been protected all these while and that it came unexpectedly too soon. This paper intends to inv...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English English |
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The Centre for WTO Studies
2015
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| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/48254/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/48254/2/JIT_2015_Rokiah_Alavi.docx http://irep.iium.edu.my/48254/3/JIT_2015_Rokiah_Alavi.pdf |
| Summary: | In 2012, the Malaysian Government announced liberalisation of 27 services sectors, including selected professional services. This announcement came as a surprise to the industry players because they have been protected all these while and that it came unexpectedly too soon. This paper intends to investigate the level of awareness and the readiness of professional service providers in Malaysia in facing greater competition as a result of liberalisation of the sector. A case study was done on consultant engineers in Malaysia using survey and questionnaire research methods.
The findings show that though majority of the respondents are aware of the liberalisation announcements, they have low level of understanding on the actual implications of liberalisation exercise. It is also found that consultant engineers in Malaysia are highly domestic oriented and many of them lack confidence in seizing opportunities created by greater market access in overseas market. The findings of this study also confirms that regulatory reforms and liberalisation initiatives can only be effective in achieving the intended objectives when the government and stakeholders have in-depth understanding of the industry at the sectoral and disaggregated levels, and have appropriate knowledge of the industry’s competitive strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. It is also important for the policy makers to identify the market failures that impede the progress and competitiveness of service providers, thus the call for informed policy interventions.
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