By NNN-Bernama
Kuala Lumpur : Indian companies are increasingly looking at Malaysia as a preferred investment destination given its cosmopolitan make-up which is an attraction to all foreign investors.
Unlike India, China, South Korea and Japan which are mostly homogenous societies, Malaysia’s multiracial population gives credibility to products which are successfully marketed here.
“If a cosmopolitan society like in multi-ethnic Malaysia has accepted a product, then that product must be good,” R. Sridhar, chairman of the diversified MOGH group, told Bernama here Monday.
He explained that when consumers in India accept a product, its attraction is perceived to be chiefly limited to only that ethnic community; likewise in the case of products accepted by the Chinese in China, Indonesians in Indonesia and Japanese in Japan.
However, in Malaysia, he noted, when all three major races have accepted the product and use it, that yields much greater credibility.
Sridhar also gave top markets to Malaysia’s political stability, the low cost of doing business, plus the ease with which one can do business here since English is widely spoken.
“This gives us increased opportunities to meet with more distributors,” he added.
MOGH Group, established in August 2007, brings together six companies from Malaysia and India, integrating industries such as energy, shipping, software, communications, hospitality and trading.
Anil Rajvanshi, senior-vice president of India-based Reliance Industries Ltd, said recently that the investment climate, political stability as well as democracy in Malaysia have lured investors to the country.
“We also find the government’s business policy to be very transparent, making it open for people to discuss. Problems are also sorted out in a much faster way.
“That’s what investors look for,” he said, adding that more investments could be expected when the time comes.
“We will definitely strengthen our foothold in Malaysia. We understand the people and the climate here, so definitely we will invest more in Malaysia, and are already looking into various opportunities,” he said.
Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Rafidah Aziz said recently that of late, there has been an influx of investments from India to Malaysia and regarded this as an indication that Malaysia is providing Indian companies with a cost-competitive location for their manufacturing operations.
Between 2006 and September this year, Malaysia approved investments of US$499.4 million in 10 projects from India.
As of December last year, total Indian investments in Malaysia in the manufacturing and related sectors amounted to US$159.3 million in 81 projects.
Among the major areas are paper, printing and publishing, fabricated metal products, chemicals and chemical products, basic metal products and wood and wood products.
As for tourism, she had said that it is viable for Malaysian and Indian companies to undertake joint ventures.
PL Selvam, chief executive officer of MOGH Group (M) Sdn Bhd, the local partner, said Malaysia has advantages to emerge as an international procurement centre.
Sridhar said China has an amazing array of consumer products which can be repackaged and marketed throughout the region using Malaysia as a base.
Malaysia has a small consumer base of 27 million people but it has the advantages to be a base for the regional Asean market in excess of 550 million people, he said.