Malaysian business confidence on the rise after SARS outbreak - Update - Brief Article

Business Asia, July, 2003

Asia is officially in SARS recovery mode, illustrated by a recent business confidence survey carried out in Malaysia. The monthly survey, conducted by the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce, showed that Western Digital, Intel and other US electronics companies in Malaysia grew more confident about their business outlook after SARS eased.

The confidence index of the Malaysian American Electronics Industry, a group of 18 electronics companies affiliated to the chamber, rose to 57 points in June, from 52 points in May, according to John Coyne, a senior vice president at Western Digital's Malaysian unit.

Business confidence among US companies in Malaysia is recovering after the end of the war in Iraq and as more countries are taken off the list of nations affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome. The World Health Organization most recently scrapped a two-month old travel advisory against visiting Belling, the world's most SARS-affected city. Hong Kong, the second worst-affected, also has SARS under control.

The American Chamber's broader business confidence index, which surveys electronics as well as companies in other industries, rose over 10 per cent to 57.6 in June. Between March and May the index had hovered just above the 50 point-mark that signals expansion in business activity. Concerns that war and disease would crimp global demand had caused the Chamber's electronics companies earlier this year to lower their forecast of sales for 2003 to 54.4 billion ringgit ($21.5 billion), from an earlier forecast of 59.1 billion ringgit. Coyne says there is a big sigh of relief that those two major things have gone by and there was hot the level of damage that was anticipated.