InvestKL to improve business ‘ecosystem’

KUALA LUMPUR: InvestKL wants to provide a better ecosystem for foreign investors in Malaysia, as part of its continuous efforts to improve the ease of doing business here, said its CEO, Datuk Zainal Amanshah.
“We are trying to make the ecosystem in terms of immigration, the logistics and the ports even smoother. We also engage with the central bank because if we are trying to attract more principal hubs for example, things like treasury related matters, forex related matters come into play,” he told SunBiz in an interview recently.
“Multinational companies (MNCs) need to get a better understanding of that. Sometimes also from the cost perspective, for example, MNCs that are heavy users of IT services will ask if the cost structure can be improved in that space. We are already competitive but of course the more we can do, the better it is,” he said.
In terms of incentives, Zainal said the number available today is pretty extensive, including the Principal Hub Incentive, which kicked off this year. He said there are many incentives for various types of MNCs such as those for ICT and knowledge centric companies and the ones for companies that invest heavily in research and development.
“We are already comprehensive in terms of the incentives but the non-fiscal incentives are becoming even more important. Some companies come here and, in selecting a location, they are not interested in our incentives; they want to know about the ecosystem, immigration policy, talent pool, cost structure and the utilities available first, before applying for incentives at a later stage,” he said.
International SOS (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd general manager David Ng said there are several attractive incentives for investors, one of which is Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status.
“We have MSC status given to us, which means that hiring of foreign talents is not an issue for us if we need to. Of course, our focus is always to hire local talent but if local talent are not available to fill the positions, then we will hire foreign talent. Sometimes this may be due to language requirements. So if we want to hire a native speaker, then we may not have a choice but to hire externally,” he said.
“Another area we found very useful was the services provided by Talent Corp. The incentives given by them meant that we were able to convince Malaysian talent overseas that we wanted to hire to come back to work in Malaysia,” he added.
International SOS has 400 employees in Malaysia, including seven doctors and 200 medical-related personnel who are paramedics that it has in remote locations to serve its clients globally.
According to Zainal, InvestKL has seen clear examples of Malaysians returning to work here when there are opportunities for them. He said some companies who have shifted their operations to Kuala Lumpur have brought Malaysians, as well as expatriates, here.
“You will see our Malaysians combined with some expats here. That is the right kind of model. When you talk about InvestKL’s mandate, yes we bring the companies here but it is a win-win situation. It is good for company due to cost, location and other reasons but also good for our ecosystem and talent pool,” he said.
On whether any of the investors brought in by InvestKL have left the country, Zainal said yes, but not due to negative reasons.
“They leave perhaps because there has been a global merger and acquisition, which is beyond their control. There are also some companies who were very badly hit, for example, in the O&G sector. It’s for those kind of reasons. For negative reasons, we’ve not seen any.”