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French Firms To Boost Investment

News From : DagangHalal.com (08 Apr 2010)

PARIS: French companies, which are not major investors in Malaysia, are set to pick up pace with RM2.3 billion of investments over the next two to four years.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said this would involve firms in the aerospace, information and communications technology (ICT), biotechnology and forensic science, engineering, oil and gas, electronics and services industries.

“It looks like the French companies have been following developments in Malaysia, including the recent announcement of the New Economic Model (NEM), with keen interest,” he told reporters here yesterday.

Muhyiddin, who is here to attend the 184th Session of the Executive Board of Unesco, met French captains of the industry on Tuesday to discuss investment opportunities in Malaysia.
He had a roundtable discussion with 20 representatives from 16 companies that expressed interest to expand businesses to Malaysia.

Also present at the discussion was Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (Mida) director general Datuk Jalilah Baba and Malaysian councillor of economic affairs here, Balkish Mohd Yasin.

France was Malaysia’s fourth largest trading partner among European Union countries last year. Malaysia’s trade with France last year amounted to US$3.55 billion (RM11.40 billion), with exports totalling US$1.55 billion (RM4.98 billion) against imports of US$2 billion (RM6.42 billion).

Muhyiddin said France was ranked as the 25th largest source of foreign investments in Malaysia in 2009, with three projects involving capital investment of US$5.6 billion (RM17.98 billion) approved from France.

Investments were mainly in the manufacture of machinery and equipment, electrical and electronic products, rubber products and non-metallic mineral products.

Currently, Lafarge, Technip and Eurocopter are some of the well-known French companies operating in Malaysia.

Muhyiddin said that with Malaysia transforming itself from a manufacturing-dependent to a services-oriented economy, French companies should consider setting up regional establishments in Malaysia.

To date, only 18 of the more than 2,600 regional establishments that have set up operations in Malaysia are from France.

Technip president and chief operating officer Bernard di Tullio said the roundtable discussion with Muhyiddin was fruitful as the latter had given an in-depth explanation of the NEM.

“We in the French business community are extremely excited on this confirmation of what was said last week by your prime minister (Datuk Seri Najib Razak),” he said.

He said Technip, operating in Malaysia since 1982, from a big regional office in Kuala Lumpur, had invested about e140 million (RM603 million) so far.

It was exploring further investments in Malaysia owing to business viability and political stability as well as reinforcement of the NEM.

Another French businessman, Jean-Paul Moisan, a professor in medical genetics who runs the Institute Genetique Nantes Altantique, said he was studying the possibility of setting up a laboratory in Malaysia on halal food product certification and forensics DNA identification.

“It’s a very interesting meeting that showed Malaysia is a very active country, a very attractive factor for businessmen like me, thanks to Mida,” he said, adding that his company was looking at an initial investment of around e500,000 to e1 million (RM2.1 million to RM4.31 million).

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