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Malaysia: Religious tourism boost

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Having been ranked the friendliest country for Muslim holidaymakers for the third year running, Malaysia has confirmed its position as a premier halal tourism destination. However, its position – and the revenue that comes with it – could be challenged by regional rivals seeking to cash in on the lucrative market.

The tourism sector is already a major contributor to the Malaysian economy, directly generating $21.4bn in 2012, the equivalent of 7% GDP, according to the latest report on the global industry’s economic impact, issued by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The council’s report for 2013, released at the end of February, said tourism provided direct employment to more than 800,000 Malaysians, some 6.5% of the active workforce.

However, when indirect factors – such as state spending on tourism-related infrastructure and support, the supply and purchase of goods and services, transport, information technology and utilities – are taken into consideration, tourism’s total contribution to the economy came to $48bn, or 15.6% of GDP, and accounted for 1.7m jobs, 13.6% of the total.

The WTTC has also forecast Malaysia will continue to build on its achievements, with total tourism revenues expected to reach $81.5bn by 2023 on the back of a sharp increase in arrival numbers over the coming decade, as the number of visitors is projected to rise from 27m in 2013 to 45m in 10 years.

According to Jamil Bidin, CEO of local firm Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC), Malaysia has made itself into a leading destination for visitors from the Middle East by making its halal brand what he called, “a seal of guarantee for consumers”. “If you want to encourage Muslim tourists to come to your country, halal-certified products and services are required,” Bidin told reporters at a halal trade fair in Kuala Lumpur in early April.

The international halal tourism trade is estimated to be worth more than $125bn per year, some 12.3% of the global outbound tourism market. This figure is set to rise by an estimated 4.8% annually through to 2020 – well above the forecast 3.8% global average – as disposable incomes in many Asian and Middle Eastern countries increase. Malaysia has already positioned itself to take a significant slice of the existing and future trade, being ranked first for the past three years in an international survey for being halal tourism friendly.

The annual market assessment, based on a number of factors, including the availability of halal food, prayer facilities, and halal-friendly accommodation, was carried out by Singapore-based consultancy and research firm Crescentrating. According to Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of the firm, the survey was conducted from the point of view of the traveller, meaning that it measured the ease of access by Muslim tourists rather than locals to halal food and services, with Malaysia scoring well across the board.

Malaysia’s continued strong showing was largely due to the fact that authorities have been focusing on the market for a number of years, he said. “Malaysia remains the top destination for Muslim holidaymakers,” said Fazal. “It is still the best place to enjoy your holiday and at the same time be completely worry-free when it comes to finding halal food and prayer places almost everywhere.”

Malaysia also benefits from being within a single flight of much of the world’s 1.7bn Muslims, as it has direct links to the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Asia.

While Malaysia may head the Crescentrating rankings, it is likely to face increasing competition from regional rivals in the years to come. The survey found that Indonesia was lagging when it came to catering for halal tourism, though Jakarta has announced it will launch a multi-faceted programme in June that aims to better Indonesia’s tourism sector to perform in the sharia-compliant segment of the global market. Singapore and Thailand also have strong market potential and hope to begin competing with Malaysia.

Under the government’s Tourism Transformation Plan 2020, launched in 2010, Malaysia is aiming to attract 36m overseas visitors by the end of the decade, a target it seems to be well on track to achieving, having seen arrivals hit a record 25m in 2012, some 40% up on the 2005 total. Similar progress over the next seven years will put Kuala Lumpur’s goal well within reach and on the road to the 45m the WTTC has forecast for 2023.

The Ministry of Tourism estimates that almost one-quarter of inbound visitors come from Muslim countries, which makes the need to maintain the flow of new services and facilities for this market essential to further growth and development of the sector, as well as to ensure it stays ahead of regional and international rivals.

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Malaysia: Religious tourism boost

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Malaysia: Investing in health

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Investment in human capital has been identified as a key driver in boosting the quality of Malaysia’s health care standards while seeing growing economic returns from the industry. However, underinvestment in health services continues to pose a risk.

Under its Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), unveiled in September 2010, the government aims to transform the country into a high-income economy bracket by 2020, with the health sector targeted as central to this plan. As one of the 12 national key economic areas (NKEAs), health care is targeted to become a significant economic enabler by generating revenue through health tourism, as well as manufacturing drugs and equipment. The sector also aims to create 180,000 new positions in health care and attract up to 1m overseas health tourists annually by the beginning of the next decade.

To achieve that goal, however, spending in the sector will need a significant boost. Currently, Malaysia dedicates the equivalent of 4.7% GDP on health services. This is lower than most middle-income nations’ spend, which averages 6.5%, according to the World Health Organisation.

One of the core areas for that increased investment is human capital. The Health Ministry has set a series of targets to increase the ratios of health sciences professionals to the general public. Once the ETP has completed its term by 2020, officials believe Malaysia will have one doctor for every 400 citizens, compared with the present rate of around 1:800, and one nurse for every 200 people, up from the current level of 1:384.

To achieve this, Malaysia is boosting its health education training schemes. In late July, Muhyiddin Yassin, the deputy prime minister, said the government was planning to increase the number of higher education institutions in the field of health science to 150,000 by 2020, up from the present 55,000.

According to Muhyiddin, who is also Malaysia’s education minister, “I believe Malaysia can play a central role in answering the need for more health professionals in the region. As such, health sciences students, who are considered highly skilled and employable, can expect a brighter future in this field.”

On July 14, in a speech delivered on her behalf at a graduation ceremony at a health training institute in Sabah, Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin, the deputy health minister, said the government was moving to accelerate the pace of improvements in sectoral education. The ministry was committed to ensuring that graduates have the knowledge and skills required, as well as providing training institutions equipped with modern facilities and qualified teaching staff.

“If we see the development of global health at present, the world needs specialists to develop public health,” Rosnah said.

The minister of health, Liow Tiong Lai, recently acknowledged that the task of increasing the number of specialists was a difficult one. Health education is a rapidly evolving segment, meaning the health sector and educators must move quickly to keep pace with needs of the industry.

“Although the system has been quite successful, we must not rest on our laurels but work tirelessly to ensure that our medical staff will be able to meet the demands of the market, which can change quite rapidly,” Liow said at an international health care conference in Kuala Lumpur on July 17. “However, quantity alone is no longer sufficient because quality also matters in the industry to achieve the excellence in not only curing but also caring.”

There are many challenges that Malaysia’s heath sector faces, including rising costs and more demanding and knowledgeable consumers, Liow said. One of the answers to these challenges will be the industry’s ability to train, attract and retain qualified personnel.

The issue of retention is a vital one, according to Dr Ismail Merican, the former director-general of health, as is the ongoing process of improving the skills base of those already in the system. In particular, Merican told local media, the government needs to step up investments in the public health care sector, strengthen its teaching role and ensure professionals are better compensated to keep them within the local system.

If Malaysia is to achieve its goals, it will need a strong health sector to underpin growth, both to ensure the wellness of society but also as a foundation for sectoral expansion. Increased spending, as well as further encouraging the already active private health services sector to ramp up investments along the training and development chain, will be required.

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Malaysia: Islamic finance pensions

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Moves to liberalise Malaysia’s pensions market are expected to galvanise the Islamic finance market, already a key segment of the country’s economy, though greater regulatory oversight will be needed to bolster investor confidence in the sector.

On July 23, the international press reported that Malaysia was introducing “sweeping reforms” to its pension system. The changes introduce a new, voluntary Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) to run alongside the existing Employees Provident Fund (EPF). The PRS will allow Malaysians to purchase a wide variety of products from private fund management firms, making it easier for them to focus on Islamic investment. Currently, the EPF collects pension contributions and invests the cash; contributors can place up to 20% in a single mutual fund.

By facilitating investment in private products by individuals, the reforms are expected to kick-start the growth of Malaysia’s small private pensions sector, which the government now expects to be worth RM73bn ($22.92bn) by 2020. Though some think the prediction is rather optimistic, most agree that there is a lot of potential for growth given the regulatory changes, growing disposable incomes and a rising culture of saving for the future.

Officials – and the structure of the new regulations – make it clear that increasing investment in Islamic products is one of the aims of the changes. “The PRS will contribute to the growth of Islamic fund products,” Zakie Ahmad Shariff, a board member of the Private Pension Administrator (newly founded to oversee the PRS funds) and CEO of the Federation of Investment Managers Malaysia, told international press. Analysts agreed that those investing in the new system would gain from sharia-compliant offerings in particular.

Of the first 30 products offered through the PRS, only six will be Islamic, with the expectation that there will be more to come. The eight existing PRS providers ¬– all of which have sharia-compliant arms – can offer between three and seven conventional products through the system, but can provide up to 10 products if they offer Islamic schemes as well.

As the domestic market grows in new segments, Malaysia continues to cement its position as one of the world’s leading sharia-compliant sectors. It is particularly strong in sukuk (Islamic bonds), which accounted for 68.7% of the $84.4bn issued globally last year and 71% of the $43.5bn launched in the first quarter of 2012 (a 55% increase on 2011’s first quarter).

In July, Axiata, Malaysia’s leading mobile telephone operator, announced it was looking to raise up to $1.5bn in sukuk issues to tap low-cost long-term funds and increase its capital efficiency. It will be the first Asian telecoms firm to issue multiple currency sukuk, according to the company. The launch was “strategic” and targeted at investors in the region, as well as the Middle East and Europe, and officials said the move would help strengthen Malaysia’s position as a global sukuk leader.

The private sector and government bodies are likely to provide further issuances in the near future as Malaysia rolls out its ambitious Economic Transformation Programme, which envisages large investments in infrastructure and services and aims to develop the economy to boost value added and strengthen value chains.

While Malaysia’s Islamic finance sector continues to be a world leader, the industry’s rise to global prominence is relatively new. As elsewhere in the world, growth has brought on regulatory challenges, and some parts of the industry lag behind others.

“Sharia-compliant trustee management needs to move forward,” Abdul Jalil Rasheed, the CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management, which moved into Islamic finance in Malaysia in 2009 and counts the EPF as its biggest customer, told OBG. “Asset management is still a very locally driven business in Malaysia. There are currently 16 licences in the market for Islamic asset management, not all of which are doing well.”

Rasheed suggests that “innovation needs to slow” so that Islamic finance can put down deeper regulatory roots and to prevent firms from over-extending themselves, adding that the market may still not be mature enough for sharia-compliant hedge funds to flourish.

As Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Awang Adek Hussin noted last year, greater cooperation among Islamic finance experts, religious scholars, government bodies and the private sector is needed to support and consolidate the industry. “Although Malaysia’s Islamic financial performance has shown encouraging development, we should not be complacent with our achievements thus far,” he said.

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Malaysia: Islamic finance pensions

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