M'sia attractive business destination

She said Malaysia not only offers a lot of incentives for companies, but also has a lot of knowledge and experience in certain industries that foreign companies can profit from.

Rancuret said her recent visit to Cyberjaya, Malaysia's Silicon Valley, showed that in this location, Malaysia has the (skilled) people and the knowledge and is right in a growing market.

"So, I do think for European companies, this is a very good location to be in," she told Bernama.

Of course Singapore is also attractive, she said, "but Singapore is attractive for only certain activities, not the activities where you need a lot of labour and space, then they will probably be better off in Malaysia."

"For foreign companies if you are looking for presence in the region and (if) you are to compare Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore to Malaysia, then I definitely think that Malaysia really offers a very good solution there," said Rancuret who is based in Singapore.

Asked about her perception of Malaysia's policies in terms of ease of doing business, Rancuret, who also in charge of Thailand and Indonesia, said: "Of course in that sense you cannot compare to ease of doing business here in Singapore, but having said that we absolutely see that the Malaysian government is working on that as well.

"Like I said, I also look after Thailand and Indonesia and I visited those countries as well. There are also Dutch companies there, but when I talked to the people it is not so easy as in Malaysia.

"Things are more clear (in Malaysia) than in Thailand and Indonesia, so the ease of doing business in Malaysia is very good.

"In the end, it depends on the (kind of) project (you are undertaking)."

In Singapore, she said, "we have 300 Dutch companies and I think in Malaysia there are also quite a lot of Dutch companies as well and what we do see is a growing number of European companies coming into this region."

NFIA assists foreign companies wishing to set their business in the Netherlands and take advantage of the Dutch business environment as a gateway to the European market.

Founded more than 30 years ago, the NFIA is an operational unit of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation.

Throughout the years it has supported thousands of companies from all over the world to successfully establish their business in the Netherlands.

It has 21 overseas offices.