Warm greetings from MAICCI.

The Sabah Development Corridor (SDC), which has generated much interests from the business community both foreign and local, is seeing these interests translated into five memoranda of agreement and eight memoranda of understanding, for projects amounting to RM16 billion. The foreign investors involved were from China, Japan, the United States, Japan and Singapore.

The projects cover a wide spectrum of activities, including property development, tourism including health and medical tourism, as well as eco-tourism; agriculture; manufacturing and transportation. Sabah, with a vibrant oil palm industry, is set to benefit from the deal by POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd, PMB and POIC Bulking Sdn Bhd to set up a bulking facility at the Palm Oil Industry Cluster (POIC) in Lahad Datu.

IPI FOR DECEMBER GREW 5.7%

Malaysia's Industrial Production Index (IPI) for December added 5.7% to 144.1 from 136.3 in the corresponding month last year, based on the latest preliminary release by the Department of Statistics(DOS.

The higher index was attributed to increases in all sectors: the Manufacturing Index expanded 6.8% to 149.7 from 140.2; the Mining Index increased 3.3% to 123.5 from 119.5 and the Electricity Index
rose 2.3% to 158.9 from 155.3. The growth in the manufacturing sector was driven by increases in the Office, Accounting and Computing Machinery and Automotive Industries.

The IPI for December grew 2.9% from the previous month's index of 140.1. The increase was led by the expansion in the mining and the manufacturing sectors, which grew 6.5% and 2.3% respectively from the indices registered in November.

The IPI for the whole of 2007 grew 2.3 % to 136.3. The growth was due to expansion in all the sectors - the electricity sector registered a 3.9% increase to 158.4 from 152.5; the mining sector
was up 3.1% to 114.7 from 111.2 and the manufacturing sector added 1.9 % to 141.6 from 139.0.

MALAYSIA'S TOTAL TRADE REMAINED ABOVE RM1.1 TRILLION IN 2007

Malaysia continued to record strong trade position with total trade exceeding RM 1 trillion for the last two years- RM1.11 trillion in 2007, up 3.7 % from RM1.07 trillion registered in 2006,

The country also continued to record a trade surplus for the10th consecutive year, where in 2007 Malaysia recorded the second highest amount for the period, at RM100.53 billion.

Last year, exports expanded 2.7 % to RM605.10 billion from 2006 while imports added 4.9 % to RM504.57 billion. The export growth was attributed to contributes from both the traditional and emerging markets such as China, Australia, United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, India and Pakistan. These emerging markets, which together accounted for RM101.28 billion or 16.7% of the country's total trade, helped to cushion the effects of the 14.5% drop in the country's exports to the US, last year.

On a regional basis, Malaysia's largest regional export market last year was North-East Asia, which contributed 29.1% of total exports, followed by Asean grew by 25.7%, North America with 16.2% and the European Union contributed 12.9%.

Malaysia's major export destinations were Singapore valued at RM88.51 billion, Japan- RM55.24 billion, China -RM53.03 billion and Thailand- RM29.98 billion.

The higher imports were attributed to the increased imports of intermediate and capital goods, brought about by the strong capital investments in the manufacturing and services sectors.

The Manufacturing sector continued to be a significant contributor to the country's exports, accounting for RM452.48 billion or 74.8 % of total exports while minerals and mineral fuels and agricultural products contributed 14 % and 9.5 % respectively.

Malaysia remained as a leading source of electrical and electronics (E&E) products to Singapore, the US, China, Japan and Hong Kong. Last year exports of E&E products stood at RM266.38billion, with a 3.2 % growth in semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, micro assemblies and transistors while exports of office machines and automatic data processing machines and parts declined by 9.2 %.

For 2008, Malaysia's exports should expand in the region of 7%, riding on the projected 10.1% growth in the China's economy, as well as the expected 6.1% growth in ASEAN. The bilateral and regional free trade agreements signed between Malaysia and its trading partners would further spur growth in trade.

Thanking you with best regards.

"TOGETHER WE ACHIEVE EXCELLENCE"