KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3: Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed chaired a dialogue session with the Embassy of Japan, Japanese Chamber of Trade and Industry Malaysia (JACTIM) and Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO) at the MITI Tower yesterday.
Also present were H.E Dr Makio Miyagawa from the Embassy of Japan, JACTIM president Toshihiko Todokoro and Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) chief executive officer Dato’ Azman Mahmud.
According to a press release, the session brought together stakeholders from both countries to discuss current issues relating to doing business in Malaysia. Issues discussed include procedures and regulations on trade and investment, as well as Malaysia’s recent review of its foreign exchange policies.
This initiative is among MIDA’s on-going efforts to promote Japanese investment into Malaysia. Other similar programmes undertaken include Mustapa’s trade and investment mission trip to Japan in April.
Japan continues to be Malaysia’s top source of foreign direct investments in the manufacturing sector since 1980. As at 2016, a total of 2,621 manufacturing projects with participation from Japan were implemented with investments of RM88.5 billion and generated 343,281 job opportunities.
For the first six months of this year, MIDA approved an additional 16 manufacturing projects from Japan with investments of RM559 million. These projects will be located in Johor, Melaka, Kedah, Selangor, and Penang. The investments approved in January–June 2017 will create 600 more job opportunities for the country. The bulk of these approved investments or 75 per cent came from expansion and/or diversification activities of existing Japanese companies operating in the country.
In addition, Japanese investors are also active in the services sector. Some of these include Aeon, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Bank and Daikin.
Japanese companies continue to use Malaysia as a base for conducting their regional and global operations. From 2006 until June 2017, there were a total of 176 global establishment projects with investments of RM2.4 billion, creating 2,453 job opportunities.
This includes recently approved Principal Hub projects from Roland Corporation — a notable Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. Roland Corporation is a leading manufacturer and distributor of electronic musical instruments, including keyboards and synthesizers, guitar products, electronic percussion, digital recording equipment, amplifiers, audio processors, and multimedia products. With more than 40 years of musical instrument development, Roland sets the standard in music technology for the world to follow. — Bernama
