Malaysia's Location, World-Class Infrastructure Key Factors For Investors

From M. Saraswathi BERLIN, (Germany), Sept 27 (Bernama) -- Strategic location, world-class infrastructure and access to skilled workers remain Malaysia's strength in continuously attracting investments from Germany, the world's fourth largest economy, as well as sustainable relations between the countries. "Our decision to invest in Malaysia is mainly due to its strategic location, world-class infrastructure, access to skilled workers as well as political stability," said Schmidt+Clemens Chief Executive Officer, Jan Schmidt-Krayer. "Malaysia was chosen after assessing various countries and as a matter of fact, we have expanded our Seremban factory twice," he told the Malaysian media on the sidelines of Prime Minister Najib Razak's dialogue session with German Business Leaders here Tuesday. Among the 25 companies that participated in the dialogue session were Atotech, AWS Schafer, BMW, Daimler, Osram, Volkswagen, Infineon, Bombardier Transportation, Ensinger, B.Braun, Green Sugar and Biesterfeld International. Schmidt+Clemens, which has invested about US$24.21 million (RM100 million) so far, is planning for a joint-venture with a local company to provide oil and gas related services to Petronas. Muhlbauer Group, which is a one-stop technology partner for the smart card, ePassport and solar back-end industry, is also keen to continuously invest in Malaysia. "We have invested about €50 million and have two plants in Melaka and we are looking at establishing another one," its President Josef Muhlbauer said. The company's cooperation with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority was extremely good, he said. X-Fab, a mixed signal foundry experts, started investing in Malaysia since 2006 via acquisition, said its Chief Executive Officer, Rudi De Winter. "The factory suited very well for our needs and we have expanded well. Besides, the people were also very well trained," he said. The company, he said, had 30 per cent growth this year and is confident of further growth. Besides these, the sustainable relationship between the two countries was also a large contributing factor, said Malaysia-German Commerce and Industry, Executive Director, Daniel Bernbeck. Germany is Malaysia’s largest investor from the European Union with a total of 552 manufacturing projects to-date, and these investments, which totalled US$11.4 billion (about RM39.6 billion), have created more than 63,500 new jobs. Notable German firms which already have strong presence for decades include Volkswagen, BMW, BASF, Osram, Mercedes, Audi, Deutsche Bank, Siemens AG, Bosch and Infineon. Last year, Germany was Malaysia’s 12th largest trading partner globally, with total bilateral trade of US$10.3 billion (RM35.74 billion). "Currently, there is a shift into Southeast Asia from China due to good infrastructure, energy resources and skilled workers," he said, adding that the interest to invest in Malaysia was only getting stronger. -- BERNAMA