Malaysia remains attractive investment destination - MITI

Malaysia is still an attractive investment destination amid slumping oil prices and volatility of the Ringgit. Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Secretary-General Datuk Dr Rebecca Sta Maria said foreign investors still viewed Malaysia as an investment destination of choice due to its conducive business environment. She said when an investors decided to locate their business in Malaysia, it was not just about the oil prices or the Ringgit value, but also the business environment. "It is about how easy it is to do a business here, how is the bureaucracy. If you can put that in place and make it easy (for them) to do business, it (falling oil prices and Ringgit value) will not be an issue," she told reporter after the opening of Shell Malaysia new office, Menara Shell, here today. Commenting on MITI's briefing on investment in Melaka yesterday, he said many foreign investors had shown interest to expand their businesses in Malaysia due to the conducive business environment and ease of dong business. "We have bodies like Pemudah (Special Task Force to Facilitate Business) working with the private sector to make it easier for them to do business here," she said. Meanwhile, Shell Malaysia Chairman Iain Lo said the company's decision to move its IT division to Bangalore from Cyberjaya had nothing to do with falling oil prices and Ringgit devaluation, instead it was prompted by lower cost and the presence of a large pool of IT graduates in India. He said as India provided lower cost, it would be more competitive for Shell to do a transactional type of business that it has around the globe. Earlier in his speech, Lo said Shell Malaysia would shift its IT division from Cyberjaya to Bangalore over the next five years due the different cost efficiencies and competitiveness between the two places. "Our service centre in Cyberjaya will continue to provide valuable human resources, finance, procurement and order processing support - not just for Shell Malaysia but also for our global business. "We will continue to look for ways to migrate higher value-added work to Cyberjaya from our global operations. Indeed, Malaysia has the right people with higher value skills," he said. For more business news, tune in to AWANI Biz on Astro channel 501.