No ‘cannibalism’ of local elements with foreign investments
KUALA LUMPUR: InvestKL Chief executive officer Datuk Zainal Amanshah rubbished claims that local elements and talents will be sidelined with the inflow of foreign investments ( FDIs), especially from China.
He said currently, Malaysia attracted high value and highskilled investments, which created opportunities in real estate and local talents.
“There will be no cannibalism of local components due to foreign investments.
“We should not look solely at China as we also receive investments from the US, Europe and others,” he said when commenting on the influx of investments from China.
Zainal said FDIs were crucial amid the uncertain global economic scenario.
“Any country today will welcome investments,” he told reporters after a briefing on ‘The 2016 Office Leasing Market Overview and 2017 Outlook” yesterday.
He said as an entity which represented the government, InvestKL engaged with Chinese investors to ensure high level of local content.
“We ‘handhold’ them and ensure that the investments policies are clear.
“From that perspective, we shouldn’t be overly concern and worried that there are cannibalisation of local elements,” he explained.
InvestKL, which is tasked by the government to attract 100 largest
We should not look solely at China as we also receive investments from the US, Europe and others. Datuk Zainal Amanshah, InvestKL chief executive officer
multinationals to invest in the Greater Kuala Lumpur by 2020, to-date has fulfilled 60 per cent of its mandate.
“We do have a funnel of opportunities where we are working on predominantly from the US and the Europe but we do believe there will be more upside from other countries such as Japan and China,” he added.
Meanwhile, JLL Property Services (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd Country Head YY Lau said new office supply was high in 2016 and expected the trend to continue in 2017.
She said demand would always be there for projects with good connectivity and amenities.
“There are more space choices for prime office buildings due to incoming supply and space reduction of oil and gas companies,” she noted, adding that location might not be confined to the central business district alone. — Bernama