Malaysia still has much to do in eradicating piracy, despite having advantages over other countries in attracting US investors in the semi-conductor and electronic industries, said US ambassador Marie T Huhtala.

In an exclusive interview with malaysiakini recently, Huhtala said the Malaysian government's effort to fight piracy was proving to be successful, adding that the US government recognised these efforts.

She said this was reflected in this year's piracy watch-list in which the US government ranked Malaysia a level lower from high priority to priority.

"Last year, Malaysia was on the designated priority watch-list because we were very concerned about the situation here. As a result of it, your government took some strong steps to crack down and enforce your (piracy) laws."

"The fact that we did lower Malaysia down a step on the list shows that we are very happy with the results here in the past year. I, for one, hope that they stay at that level or even drop lower but we will have to see," she said.

However, she warned that the Malaysian government should not slow down on its efforts to fight piracy.

Rule of law

On the recent trend by investors to relocate to cheaper locations, Huhtala said Malaysia can still hold its place as "it does much better that other countries."

"A lot of companies are looking at China as wage rates are lower there, (but) wage rates are only one part of the picture. That's not the only thing you look at when you make a decision on where to locate.

"One of the bigger things that you look at is political stability and predictability, rule of law, whether the rules for customs stay the same, whether the taxes stay the same, whether there will be a lot of corruption ...."

Huhtala said that Malaysia was competitively positioned compared to some other countries in these aspects.

"A lot of the American companies that I have talked to are interested in moving their operations here up the value chain by increasing the complexity and the sophistication of the products that they are making."

The ambassador said that the US investors were satisfied with the conditions here as they face fewer problems when dealing with the authorities and industries.

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