KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (MARGMA) looks forward to seeing more tax incentives including reinvestment allowance and pioneer status for the rubber glove industry in the 2013 Budget.
In a recent statement, MARGMA president Lim Kwee Shyan said that incentives may be accorded to producers and exporters who aggressively reinvested to automate their production lines and develop innovations in gloves specifically for use in the medical industry. Moreover, he stressed that government assistance would facilitate mechanisation and automation in the industry as dependency on foreign labour is also reduced.
On the other hand, a clear policy and tariff structure for the energy sector and water supply must be highlighted; and commitment as well as consistent policy for the supply of foreign labour are issues that MARGMA also hopes to be resolved, according to Lim.
“We have come a long way in innovating our products in the last 25 years. We understand the need to reduce reliance on foreign workers. From a practical point of view, our industry needs a longer timeframe to mechanise and reach full automation, ” he said, adding that for the last 15 years, Malaysia has been a leading global supplier of rubber gloves.
He said that in the previous year, the country exported some 110 billion pieces of rubber gloves to more than 180 countries, earning a total export revenue of RM9.89 billion.
In the first half of the year, the export value for rubber gloves amounted to RM5.16 billion, according to the Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council. (RJA)