Exim Bank To Intensify Business In Asia

By Farhana Poniman KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Bernama) -- Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Bhd (Exim Bank) plans to intensify its business in Asia given the region's high demand for infrastructure. President/chief executive officer, Adissadikin Ali, said the region was its favoured area because most of the developing countries were located here. "Infrastructure is needed in a bigger way here and Malaysia is known for exporting construction capabilities," he told selected media representatives recently. Adissadikin said the bank had started shifting to Asia and Asean, in particular, since two years ago as it was more familiar with the region's political and legal risks. Furthermore, he said, the bank saw greater opportunity within the region, especially with almost two thirds of the world population located in Asia. "This move also makes sense given that it is closer to home of about two-hour flying radius, making it easier to monitor our work," he said. Adissadikin said exposure-wise, 60 per cent of Exim Bank's business was in Asia and Asean, also reflecting the revenue contribution. Meanwhile, he was upbeat on this year's outlook as the bank was half-way through to its US$1.56 billion (RM5 billion, US$1 = RM3.18) loan disbursement target for 2014. He was also confident that the bank would continue to grow its loan assets from the current RM6 billion. "We target to grow loan assets by 30 per cent year-on-year but so far for the past three years, we have been growing more than that whereby we grew our asset size in terms of loan by 56 per cent last year alone," he said. --BERNAMA