Business

Thursday October 22, 2009

Mida wooing investors from US and Europe

By DAVID TAN


GEORGE TOWN: Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (Mida) expects to attract RM73.5bil in investments this year for the manufacturing and services sectors, compared with RM112bil in 2008, due to the global economic recession.

Director-general Datuk Jalilah Baba told StarBiz that Mida was negotiating with companies from the United States and Europe to invest in alternative energies, services, and research and development in design and engineering. Mida was also looking into customising incentive packages for investors, she said at the Motorola Suppliers Conference here. Also present was Motorola Malaysia managing director T.T. Yew.

“Investors, however, look beyond tax holiday incentives when deciding whether to invest in Malaysia,” she said.

Datuk Jalilah Baba ... ‘Mida will also match-make the investors with local vendors that can support their businesses.’

“They also consider the infrastructure and availability of skilled labour in the country.”

She added that “Mida will also match-make the investors with local vendors that can support their businesses,” with Mida concentrating on roping in more investments for the services sector, in line with the federal government’s plan for the sector to generate 60% of the country’s gross domestic product by 2015.

“This year we sent out various teams specialising in different areas of investment to different countries to woo investors. One of the teams that we sent out specialised in the services business sector.

“Investments in the services sector include establishing an international procurement centre, distribution centre and supply-chain management centre,” Jalilah said.

Mida is now focusing on China and India for investment inflow. “There will be a large delegation from China to Malaysia to study investment in the natural resourced-base and metal fabrication industries. Malaysians in China have already invested RM4bil in the country.

“We hope Chinese investors would also bring similar volume of investments into Malaysia. There will also be a business delegation from the Middle East coming over soon,” she said.

Meanwhile, Yew said Motorola Malaysia was able to sustain its communication devices business during this global recession because of its ability to continuously provide value-added solutions for customers.

“We are close to our customers and are quick to respond to their needs with value-added products.

“Furthermore, we also have a team of 50 vendors in Malaysia that can grow their technology and human resource skills in tandem with our progress,” he said.

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