From a global perspective, Malaysia has made considerable headway in environmental issues compared to other countries. In the 2010 Environmental
Performance Index Malaysia ranked 54th out of 163 examined countries and performed better than countries like Poland, the US or Belgium in addressing environmental challenges. Despite a relatively positive environmental record, the country faces a number of problems such as deforestation, pollution of inland and marine waters, soil and coastal erosion, overfishing and coral reef destruction, along with air pollution and the disposal of hazardous and communal waste due to the rapid economic growth and industrialization in the past decade. The most prominent at the moment are considered to be air pollution from industrial emissions, solid waste management, ensuring longterm sustainability of the water supply and sewerage services and overall improvements of energy efficiency to re-establish a clean Malaysia.

Malaysia has realized that investing in environmental protection is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, environmental awareness is building up. Under the
9th Malaysian Plan (2006-2010), the Malaysian government had placed emphasis on preventive measures to mitigate and minimise negative environmental effects at source, to intensify conservation efforts and to ensure a sustainable development of both exhaustible and the renewable energy resources. There are industries which still require large efforts to be brought up to speed in environmental matters such as solid waste management. Thus, the environmental sector in Malaysia offers much potential for companies with expertise in these fields which will be discussed further.

In acknowledgement of this potential, the Malaysian government also focuses on environmental aspects in its 10th Malaysian Plan (2011-2015) called “Building an