KUALA LUMPUR (March 9): Malaysia’s services exports are expected to rise by an average of over 8% a year during the 2016-2030 period with tourism, education and health services dominating the growth, says HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd.

"In Malaysia, service exports have become an increasingly important driver of total trade volumes and accounted for over 16% of total exports in 2015,” said deputy head of commercial banking Ng Wei Wei.

"Looking ahead, growth will average more than 8% a year on average over 2016 to 2030 while tourism will continue to play a key role, contributing more than a third of overall growth," she said at a media briefing on the HSBC Global Trade Forecast report today.

According to the report, global goods exports are expected to recover and expand gradually by 3% in value this year and by an average of 6% until 2030.

The services export side will grow by an average of 7%, contributing US$12.4 trillion to global trade flows in 2030 compared with an estimated US$4.9 trillion this year.

The report also said that while the US dollar value of global merchandise contracted by 3% last year, cross border sales of services such as tourism, banking, construction and software development has risen by 1% in nominal terms.

"We can see that technological advances, rising consumer spending and falling travel costs are boosting the services sector even as factors such as commodity price volatility and subdued investment spending weigh in growth in goods trade," added HSBC Bank Malaysia head of commercial banking Andrew Sill.

Meanwhile, the report said that the government’s ongoing focus on outsourcing will continue to drive growth in the business-to-business  segment while  the other services’ growth revenue is forecast to grow by 10% a year over a decade and a half.

Among the sectors that should benefit from rising global demand for services are the Multimedia Super Corridor which will continue to influence the expansion of trade in ICT services.

Moving forward, the report said machinery and equipment will be the key drivers of trade in goods, both in the export and import sides.