Malaysia's central bank will roll out a basket of new or revamped tax incentives for the Labuan International Offshore Financial Center (IOFC), local press reported Tuesday.

Zeti Akhtar Aziz, governor of the central bank Bank Negara Malaysia, said the measures will be part of the government efforts to attract more investors for the one-stop agency, the Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority (LOFSA).

"With the new incentives, LOFSA will be able to compete with other offshore centers in the Asia-Pacific region and the world," Zeti told reporters Monday after announcing LOFSA's financial performance for the year ended December 2006.

She said the tax review is an on-going process to meet the requirement of the ever-changing world business environment.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is expected to announce the new incentives during his Budget 2008 speech at the end of September, said Zeti.

Labuan is an island off the coast of eastern Malaysia, administered by the federal government. For years, the Malaysian government has been making efforts to develop it as a premier IOFC.

According to reports of the New Straits Times, in 2006 Labuan is home to more than 300 financial institutions serving more than 5,678 offshore companies from over 80 countries and regions.

For the year 2006, Labuan's income increased to 19.8 million ringgit (5.66 million U.S. dollars) and reserves improved to 24.9 million ringgit (7.11 million U.S. dollars), said the report.

Source: Xinhua