Business

Wednesday November 4, 2009

British SMEs find Malaysian market attractive


KUALA LUMPUR: It’s not just the big companies in Britain that find Malaysia an attractive market as small businesses do too, according to its Trade, Investment and Small Business Minister Lord Davies of Abersoch.

“Britain has 4.8 million small and medium enterprises and there are many opportunities to be tapped from a high growth market like Malaysia,” he told reporters yesterday.

He said Britain had identified Malaysia as one of its top 15 high growth markets for international trade and was looking at ways to further trade links.

Lord Davies ... ‘Malaysia will need foreign companies’ - Bernama

Earlier, Lord Davies, who was previously chairman of Standard Chartered PLC, visited the British Educational Suppliers Asia Conference and met with several British educational companies in the region.

“British qualifications and British educational institutions are already well-known and respected for their quality,” he said

He said Britain was a strong partner for Malaysia and had the expertise to help the economy develop faster and better.

“Malaysia has ambitious plans to move up the value chain and to do that, she will need to equip her citizens with the skills to compete in a changing global economy.

“Malaysia will need foreign companies to come in and drive that process forward,” he said.

Lord Davies also visited Spirit Aerosystems Sdn Bhd, the airline composite sub-assemblies maker, to find out more about the rapidly developing aerospace sector in the country.

“The Spirit Aerosystems investment here which is very significant is a good example of a win-win situation for investors and Malaysia,” Lord Davies said.

On his meeting with International Trade and Investment Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, Lord Davies said: “We covered a wide range of areas and agreed there was huge potential for partnership in areas like education and financial services.”

He said foreign direct investment into Malaysia would continue to grow in tandem with liberalisation of the services sector.

In 2008, total exports of goods and services from Britain to Malaysia was £1.64bil while total import of goods and services from Malaysia to Britain was £2.04bil.

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