The Borneo Post (Sabah)23 Nov 2016
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are unlikely to be impacted should the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is called off, said the Secretariat for Empowerment of Indian Entrepreneurs (SEED) Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Dr A.T. Kumararajah.
He said currently Malaysia has inked more than 160 free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries, and the TPPA was only one of them.
“It would not change much should the TPPA cease to exist, and I don’t think much of the Malaysian SMEs will be affected in the near term,” he said on the sidelines of the “SME and Entrepreneurship Business Award 2017” media briefing here, yesterday.
It was reported that the US President-elect Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would withdraw the country from the TPPA on his first day in office.
Meanwhile, Kumararajah expects the growth of the SMEs to hit six per cent this year as the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to increase by between four and 4.5 per cent in 2016. — Bernama
Reference: https://www.pressreader.com/malaysia/the-borneo-post-sabah/20161123/282574492672098
