Malaysia announces measures to promote capital market growth, boost employability of graduates in the field

Overall, one key pillar these measures aim to address is to enhance Malaysia’s competitiveness to strengthen market confidence.

On 19 June 2023 (Monday), Malaysia's Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dato’ Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim announced a series of short- and medium-term measures aimed at driving the country's economic growth and capital market competitiveness.

Driven by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), these strategic measures will look to address three key pillars:

Pillar 1: Creating market vibrancy with greater participation opportunities for the rakyat;
Pillar 2: Attracting a larger pool of investors to support financing for small and medium enterprises and new economy companies, and
Pillar 3: Enhancing Malaysia’s competitiveness to strengthen market confidence.

The SC together with Bursa Malaysia also outlined the measures:

• A reduction of the stamp duty rate for the trading of listed shares on Bursa Malaysia from 0.15% to 0.10%, while the stamp duty cap is maintained at RM1,000 for each contract. This change, which takes effect in July, will directly lower the cost of transactions, especially for retail investors, who are particularly sensitive to costs.
• In efforts to widen the pool of investors, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and SC will look at policies to facilitate and attract the setting up of family offices in Malaysia, promote corporate venturing to drive greater domestic direct investment through more facilitative tax and incentive policies, and to widen the definition of sophisticated investors to include angel investors.

The capital market regulators are also committed to exploring ways to reduce market friction and shorten time-to-market for initial public offerings, it was added.

Bursa Malaysia Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift, said: "We are confident that the proposed measures, along with the existing development initiatives, will stimulate market activity and create a more dynamic and liquid market environment. A liquid and strong-performing capital market has tremendous benefits to numerous stakeholders, and the economy as a whole.

"More importantly, the measures will widen affordable investment choices for the rakyat, and deepen investor interest in our market, leading to Bursa Malaysia being a destination of choice for fundraising."

The above announcement by the Prime Minister was made on the sidelines of the launch of investED, a flagship capital market initiative aimed at enhancing graduate employability and ensuring a sustainable talent pipeline to help ease the shortage of skilled talent in the capital market.

The three-year initiative, which was announced in Budget 2023, is driven by the SC, in collaboration with MOF, the Ministry of Higher Education, Bursa Malaysia, and leading capital market industry players. It is also said to be the first ever such collaboration between the SC, capital market industry, and universities.

Acknowledging that investing in education and talent development is a priority for the stakeholders, SC Chairman Dato' Seri Dr. Awang Adek Hussin said: "The programme is introduced to help address the mismatch of talent between graduates and the growing needs of the industry, which is seeing the shift to the digital world. Thus, it is crucial that the 'last mile' assistance be given to graduates to address this mismatch."

"We hope this initiative will enhance the employability of graduates and enable them to seize the various job opportunities in the capital market," he added.

The investED initiative is expected to help improve the knowledge and employability of 9,000 university graduates, and provide job opportunities for 600 graduates over the three-year period. This will be done via job placements and on-the-job training provided by capital market firms under investED’s Leadership Programme.

Another 2,400 graduates will also benefit from investED’s Foundation Programme, a structured certification programme managed by SC’s learning arm, the Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC).

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