Malaysia Invites UK Investment In High-Tech, High Value-Added, Knowledge-Based, Skills-Intensive Industries

From Abdul Aziz Harun

LONDON, Sept 9 (Bernama) -- Malaysia welcomes more investments from the United Kingdom, particularly in new growth areas in high technology, high value-added, knowledge-based and skills-intensive industries which provide high income jobs.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Malaysia now emphasised on talents, creativity and innovation, which would not be possible without inflow of new foreign direct investments.

He said Malaysia was adopting the ecosystem approach in promoting investments into the country, the approach which acknowledged that business models were continuously evolving and sophisticated business solutions often entailed a more complex and dynamic relationship of a wide range of activities.

"Given the strong level of the UK technological expertise and innovative culture, we believe there are many opportunities for investments by the UK companies, especially in a number of key sectors in which the UK is known to have already excelled, such as the aerospace industry, bio-manufacturing and pharmaceuticals, chemicals and the energy and environmental technologies," said Muhyiddin, who is here on a five-day working to the UK, when addressing the roundtable meeting with the UK captains of industries organised by the Malaysian High Commission office in the UK on Monday.

Officials from 24 UK companies attended the meeting, which Muhyiddin said was aimed to brief them on the opportunities, challenges and support available in Malaysia.

Also present were the Malaysian High Commissioner to the UK, Datuk Seri Zakaria Sulong, the UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Lord Stephen Green, and senior officials from companies such as the BAE Systems, BRE Global Ltd, Commonwealth Business School, HSBC, JCB and MATRADIS.

Muhyiddin said he was optimisted that the meeting would be able to strengthen the ongoing efforts to enhance business cross flows between the two countries, build upon the existing strong partnership and explore new areas of cooperation.

He said Malaysia was confident that its economy would remain resilient, underpinned by the comfortable level of reserves, strong domestic consumption, low unemployment rate and healthy inflows of foreign direct investments.

"The Malaysian economy expanded by 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2013 albeit moderate global growth. The overall growth performance was driven by resilient domestic demand, which cushioned the negative impact of the weak external environment," he said.

He said Malaysia's growth formula was premised upon a strong and effective partnership between the public and private sectors, with the government facilitating businesses by ensuring that procedures and regulations promote a business-friendly environment.

He pointed out that this partnership had made Malaysia cost-competitive and contributed to its ability to continue to attract foreign direct investments.

"To move the country forward, we have charted a very clear road map based on the strategies of the New Economic Model (NEM) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) that will enable us to achieve our target of becoming a high-income nation by 2020," he said.

Muhyiddin said last year UK was Malaysia s 18th largest trading partner and the total trade stood at US$4.42 billion while the total trade for January-June period was US$2.29 billion.

He said the UK was ranked the 8th largest foreign investor in the manufacturing sector in Malaysia, with investments amounting to more than US$2 billion, and the major sectors of UK investments are in the chemical and chemical products, petrochemicals, electrical and electronics and non-metallic mineral products.

"We are proud to be the host for many of the prominent UK companies. Among the notable UK companies operating in Malaysia are Shell, Dyson Manufacturing, Tioxide, British Petroleum, Xyratex, Glaxo Smithkline and Ethylene, which have made substantial investments in Malaysia.

"We are excited to note that British Telecoms has recently expanded its operations in Malaysia by establishing its global shared facility, employing more than 600 high knowledge workers, he added.

Muhyiddin said the government was also increasingly liberalizing its services sector as this would be a key driver for growth; and services industries, adding that Malaysia was emerging as a strong leader, including in regional establishments, tourism, health services, Islamic finance, research and development activities, education, logistics and business services.

These can be avenues for enhancing bilateral investments further, he said.

Urging the UK companies to explore some of the opportunities highlighted, he said to date the government had liberalised 45 services sub-sectors which include tourism services, healthcare, education, business services and professional services.

He also said Malaysia was actively involved as the negotiating member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, a free trade area initiative involving New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the United States, Vietnam, Canada and Japan.

"We have successfully conducted the 19th round of negotiations held on August 22nd and 30th, 2013 in Brunei. The TPP will provide business opportunities for UK companies to a seamless market with preferential access to a larger population regionally and globally, he said.

Muhyiddin ended his speech with an assurance that the Malaysian Government would continue to pursue pro-business, prudent and pragmatic policies in order to ensure Malaysia s investment climate remained attractive for businessmen to not only conduct their normal business activities but also expand and diversify their existing operations.