But even as he pointed to the increasingly busy skies, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan also highlighted the challenges that come with such growth – including the need for air navigation service providers to ensure safety as more people fly.

Khaw, who is also Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure, was addressing airline chiefs, government officials and other industry players at the opening of the Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit yesterday (February 15).

The need for such tie-ups is growing. Within Asean, the rise of low-cost carriers had seen passenger numbers triple and air links grow by 40 per cent over the past decade.

Demand for air travel in Asean could grow at 6.5 per cent annually over the next 20 years, or even higher if plans for open skies within Asean take off.

“Governments need to play a firm regulatory role to ensure that safety is not compromised even as more people and airlines take to the skies,” said Khaw.

This includes pushing for airspace integration and – in the light of recent tragic air accidents – never allowing safety to be compromised. “We must have resolve to make the hard decisions, in the interests of aviation safety first and foremost,” said Khaw.

He also said that the push for liberalising air services should continue, and Asean and the European Union were looking at an agreement to allow airlines from both sides easier access to each other.

Within Asean , the ultimate aim is open skies which will allow airlines from member states to fly freely within the bloc.

But much work remains to be done on this, analysts said.

For example, Indonesia has yet to ratify a deal which was to have been sealed at the end of last year, to allow Asean airlines free access into Indonesian points.

Aviation law professor Alan Tan of the National University of Singapore, who has been following the developments closely, told The Straits Times: “I look forward to Indonesia accepting this final piece of the puzzle soon in order to jump-start the Asean single market.”

With foreign capital returning to emerging Asian markets in search of higher yields, the ringgit gained 0.97 per cent to close at 4.1310 against the US dollar.

This was in line with the rebound in Malaysia’s equity market, which saw its benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KL Composite Index (FBM KLCI) rising 0.38 per cent yesterday to close at 1,649.96, off an early high of 1,661.34, even as the country’s bond market continued to attract foreign inflows over the last five months.

According to economists, the strengthening of the ringgit yesterday was in tandem with the rebound in regional capital markets, as the risk of China devaluing its currency eased and crude oil prices remained steady in recent days.

Working in the ringgit’s favour, they noted, was also the weakening of the US dollar, which was driven by a downgrade in market expectations over the pace of future interest rate hikes in the world’s largest economy.

“The recent strengthening of the ringgit is a result of China’s currency move, as much as it is a reflection of the improvement in crude oil prices,” AllianceDBS Research chief economist Manokaran Mottain told StarBiz.

“It is also attributable to the weakening US dollar, following weak economic data and hints from the US Federal Reserve that there might not be any rate hike in the near-term,” he explained.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) yesterday set the average yuan exchange rate higher by 0.3 per cent – which was the biggest increase in three months – at 6.5118 against the US dollar. This drove the yuan, which is still allowed to move to a maximum of 2 per cent on either side of the reference rate, to close 1.23 per cent higher at 6.4945 against the greenback.

Over the weekend, PBOC governor Zhou Xiaochuan was quoted as saying that there was no basis for the yuan to keep falling.

Zhou also said that China was committed to keeping its currency stable against a basket of other major currencies, while managing the daily volatility of the yuan against the US dollar.

Besides China’s policy action, the strong rebound in global crude oil prices since last Friday also contributed to the improvement in investor sentiment, which drove regional capital markets higher.

Brent crude, which is the international oil benchmark, has jumped by about 10 per cent since last Friday to trade at the US$33-per-barrel level on renewed hopes of a production cut by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. This helped ease concerns over Malaysia’s declining revenue from oil and gas sources.

“As long as crude oil prices do not go below the US$30-per-barrel level, the ringgit will remain relatively steady amid the reversal in the outlook for the US dollar,” Singapore-based head of foreign-exchange research at Malayan Banking Bhd Saktiandi Supaat said.

In its fixed-income report, BIMB Research said: “We believe that external developments, with the Bank of Japan’s adoption of negative rates and a dovish US rates market, supported flows into higher yielding regional currencies of which the MGS (Malaysian Government Securities) benefited as well.”

As at end-January 2016, foreign ownership of MGS rose to RM164.4bil, or 47.9 per cent of total outstanding MGS, from RM162.1bil, or 47.7 per cent, in December 2015.

Meanwhile, the ringgit also traded higher against other major currencies yesterday.

It rose 1.1 per cent against the Singapore dollar to 2.9536; 1.6 per cent versus the Japanese yen to 3.6264; 1.5 per cent against the euro to 4.6238; and 1.1 per cent against the British pound sterling to 5.9870.

“We want an assurance for our buyers that Indonesia will stay consistent with its free trade agreement [FTA] with Europe, or possibly become a member of the TPP,” she said during a recent visit to the Industry Ministry’s office.

Anne said that the FTA with the EU and the TPP would speed up her firm’s expansion project as the partnerships would likely boost demand from the partnerships’ participating countries.

Anne added that her company had planned to invest around US$40 million in 2016 to 2017 to expand its production capacity, with demand for new workers hitting 12,000 people this year and 15,000 people next year.

Indonesian Textile Association (API) chairman Ade Sudrajat said that his association basically welcomed any partnerships with other countries as long as they helped reduce both tariff and non-tariff barriers for Indonesian textile products.

Trade Minister Thomas Lembong said previously that his ministry would focus on speeding up talks on the Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), a bilateral agreement with Australia and a partnership with Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein (European Free Trade Association) this year.

The government has also expressed its intention to join the TPP once it has concluded talks on the Indonesia-EU CEPA.

The CEPA, which was initially negotiated in 2012, will cover issues including reduction of trade barriers and liberalization of government procurement projects.

Nations that are covered by the recently signed TPP are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the US.

The Industry Ministry’s director for textiles, leather, footwear and various industries, Muhdori, said recently that the textile industry was one of the sectors that was most ready to compete under free trade arrangements.

“Our textile industry is already structured from its upstream to downstream. Most of the raw materials used by the industry are also domestically sourced, with only some specialty fabrics or yarns imported,” he said.

Indonesia’s textile exports gradually increased from $11.2 billion in 2010 to an estimated $22.65 billion last year, with imports value always below exports value, according to Industry Ministry data.

The textile industry grew around 6 percent in 2011 to 2013 but slowed to only 1.53 percent in 2014.

Should Indonesia join the TPP, one of the main competitors for its textile products in the US import market would be Vietnam, which is already a member of the TPP.

Vietnam’s share of the US apparel import market could go up from 10 percent to 35 percent once the TPP is implemented, according to consulting firm O’Rourke Group Partners, LLC as quoted by AmCham Vietnam.

Therefore, JETRO would co-operate with relevant ministries, industries and localities to identify “new” companies that have the capa billionity to co-operate with Japanese firms, he said.

Most businesses in supporting industries are small or medium-sized, have modest resources and management, and use outdated technologies, resulting in inconsistent quality for their products, he said.

This is a challenge for Japanese firms seeking local content to serve their expansion plans, he said.

Opacity of information is an obstacle to collaboration between Japanese and Vietnamese firms, especially in supporting industries, he said.

State firms are reluctant to release information, making it hard for foreign companies, including Japanese, to study potential business partners, he explained.

Japanese firms expect the Government and local authorities to better manage State-owned enterprises to ease this problem and to have more support policies for SMEs to mitigate their lack of capital and technologies.

According to JETRO, the rate of locally-made products supplied to Japanese producers in Vietnam has increased significantly compared to many years ago but remained low compared to other countries in the region.

Yasuzumi said foreign direct investment in Vietnam, especially Japanese, would continue to rise meaning local manufacturers would be called on to supply more products to foreign investors.

The Government has passed a decree on developing supporting industries and HCM City has policies in place to boost their development.

Yasuzumi said the city should make use of legal documents innovatively to come up with clear policies such as offering financial guarantees for companies without assets to mortgage and set up funds to support businesses.

Vietnam’s environmental policies are outdated compared with other countries, and to minimise environmental impacts, most localities, including HCM City, have curtailed industries that potentially affect to the environment.

Localities should allow enterprises to invest in such industries with the caveat that they must use advanced eco-friendly technologies, he said, explaining that this would help boost supporting industries.

In 2016-20 the city would focus on developing four major industries – mechanical engineering, electronics and information technology, rubber and plastics, and food processing – and the two traditional industries of garment and textile and footwear, especially their supporting industries.

“The US is an important country in determining the state of the world economy and now its economy has grown fast at 2.4 per cent with a low unemployment rate at 4.9 per cent.

” billionateral trade and investment relations are good and the trade surplus is in our favour,” Mustapa told a press conference on the eve of the US-Asean Summit hosted by President Barack Obama.

Mustapa said a more aggressive approach was needed in getting Malaysian companies to venture into US markets.

Mustapa who arrived from Kuala Lumpur yesterday, visited a Malaysian franchisor outlet, Papparich, in Los Angeles which opened three months ago.

“The response has been very good and they plan to open another outlet in the US,” he said, adding that Papparich has 36 outlets overseas, mostly in Australia.

Another Malaysian company, Top Glove, a manufacturer of rubber gloves recorded 15 per cent growth last year, with the US and Canada being its biggest market.

“Top Glove products are being taxed at least 3.5 per cent in the US but when the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement is enforced, the tax will be abolished,” he added.

Mustapa said the success of these companies was the result of government-private sector efforts.

“The Prime Minister’s working visit to California will help further promote Malaysia as an attractive investment country for American companies. His visit comes at the right time to tap investment potential and to promote the Malaysian brand.”

After attending the summit here, Najib is scheduled to meet fund managers in San Francisco and visit Apple Inc and Tesla headquarters.

Mustapa said Malaysia and Asean were being seen as a dynamic region by the US, adding that Asean-US trade in 2014 was recorded at US$212.4 billion (RM877.4 billion).

He said Asean economic ministers would be conducting a roadshow this week to promote Asean as an attractive region for investment.

The publicly listed retailer PT Hero Supermarket is the IKEA franchisee in Indonesia as appointed by the IISBV, the owner and world-wide franchisor of the brand.

Magee said the Supreme Court ruling issued last year only invalidates two IKEA trademarks under class 20 and 21 for furniture products, registered in 2006 and 2010, because they were not used in the three-year window post registration with the Intellectual Property Rights Directorate General.

“The Commercial Court of Jakarta and the Supreme Court rulings did not award the IKEA trademark to any other party,” he said.

A local furniture firm, PT Ratania Khatulistiwa, based in Surabaya, East Java, filed a trademark suit with the Jakarta Commercial Court in 2013, stating that the Dutch firm had not used its trademark for commercial purposes for three consecutive years. In 2014, the court ordered that the trademarks be invalidated.

IISBV filed an appeal to the Supreme Court that was rejected last year, according to court documents uploaded to its website recently.

IISBV had reregistered the IKEA trademark in 2012 with a plan to open a store in 2014 following the signing of a franchise agreement with Hero Supermarket.

The reregistration process, completed in 2014, covered around 40 classes of trademark, including the disputed class 20 and 21, Magee said.

“Therefore, the court decision has no impact on the current operation of IKEA in Indonesia,” he said.

Hero Supermarket legal director Hadrianus Wahyu Trikusumo said that the IKEA trademarks registration lodged by the local company was currently on hold.

“We don’t want to speculate on this,” he replied when asked about the possibility that the government would grant the trademarks and what the implication of such a decision would have on his firm’s business.

Meanwhile, Magee was optimistic about business potential in the country despite the conflicting decisions made by authorities.

The European Business Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia (EUROCHAM) chairman Ulf Backlund voiced similar optimism, saying that his office remained very positive regarding both Indonesian market potential and government and said that the actions taken to protect the trademark were in the right direction.

“From our perspective, of course, intellectual property rights, trademarks and the protection around these are very important for all businesses,” he said, admitting that the matter had drawn global attention.

IKEA, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, founded by Ingvar Kamprad in Sweden in 1943, currently boasts 375 IKEA stores, over 150,000 co-workers in 47 countries, and total sales over 30 billion euros (US$33.77 billion).

The company opened for business in Indonesia in 2014 and plans to open two stores every five years until 2025.