Malaysia

General:

Malaysia is multi races country. Malay, Chinese and Indian are the three major races in its society. If a businessperson wants to go to Malaysia for business, basically, he or she has to deals with three different races. Each race has a different culture, language and religion but there are some similar customs among all three.

 

Malay is the majority pf people on Malaysia. Almost all of the Malay is Muslim. According to the Islamic rules, Muslims are not allowed to drink alcohol and eat pork. Foreign businessperson should avoid drinking alcohol and eating pork with Muslims during a business dinner. Also, in the Muslim culture, people shake hands by using their right hand because using the left hand is impolite. In addition, most of the Malay go to mosques to pray on Friday.     

 

Chinese is the second major race. In general, Chinese Malaysians donft have any specific rules or limitation in their culture. There is no specific religion in Chinese.

 

Indian is the third major race. In general, Indian Malaysians also donft have any specific rules or limitations in their culture but according to religion, some Indian donft eat beef.

 

First Meet:

When people first meet in Malaysia, they shack their hands and stand around one meter to each other. The Chinese and Indian will hand over their business cards in both hands, but the Malay will only hand over their right hand. Both men and women are some.

 

Clothing

Malaysia is a tropical country, so it doesnft have winter, spring or autumn. The weather is like summer for the whole year.

Men:

Most of the businesspersons wear shirt and tie without a jacket. However, in some very important events people will wear a jacket. All races dress mostly the same in business clothing during business hours except for their own tradition festivals.

Women

The Malay women have to wear long shirt or skirt to cover their bodies. Sexy clothes are prohibited by their religion. Chinese and Indian donft have a strict rule on clothing but normally the society is a little conservative so sometimes it is impolite to dress sexy.

 

Business Meeting and Dinner

It is important to be on time for a business meeting. Because arriving late is impolite and unacceptable. However, if the dinner is informal some people may be late around 10 to 15 minutes and people usually donft talk about business at dinner. After dinner, people normally will go for tea, coffee or alcohol (not Malay) at a coffee shop or bar. Malaysians eat their lunch from 12PM to 2PM. Dinner around 6PM to 8PM and then go out for tea or coffee around 10PM to 12AM. People just chat and get brief information from each other, and will only talk about serious issue at the office.

 

Contract

In Malaysia, when a contract is signed, both sides will accept and follow it. However, when a problem occurs, it is acceptable to change the conditions with the permission of both sides.

 

Conclusion

Because Malaysia is a multi races country, foreign businesspeople always need to deal with three different cultures and customs. Also, the customs of Muslims are basically the same in all Islamic countries in the world.