M'sia To Drive Future Growth For Frost&Sullivan

By Nor Baizura Basri NUSAJAYA (Johor, Malaysia), March 6 (Bernama) -- Frost & Sullivan is bullish on Malaysia's potential, not only as the growth driver for the company but as a springboard to strengthen its position within the Asia Pacific region, moving forward. Describing its strategic location in the region, the company's Senior Partner & Asia Pacific Managing Director Manoj Menon said the proximity to many high growth countries within the region, was one of Malaysia's strength that lured Frost & Sullivan to invest more in the country. He said Malaysia, which has fantastic and sound infrastructure, reasonably good talent pool, was very close with high-growth markets like Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan and South Korea, and yet had the access and flexibility to work very close with Singapore. "It puts Malaysia in a very formidable position to participate in the growth that we are likely to see in Asean (and) that is why, we are investing in Malaysia, in particular. "We see a great opportunity to drive this growth in this region with Malaysia as a base, supporting that growth for us in Frost & Sullivan," he told Bernama ahead of its new office inauguration in Iskandar Malaysia later Thursday. Besides, Menon said as an investor, the company was also optimistic with the growth within the country, driven by projects under the Economic Transformation Programme. Not satisfied with an office in Kuala Lumpur, the company invested on opening the Iskandar Malaysia as it was determined to grow aggressively by tapping the economic corridor's growth potential. Menon said Malaysia was currently Frost & Sullivan’s second largest office in the Asia Pacific behind India, with 120 employees in Kuala Lumpur and 80 staff in Iskandar Malaysia currently. "We would like to grow our staff strength to about 800 employees in Iskandar in the next six to seven years. Our office here will be the engine of growth for Frost & Sullivan in Asia Pacific. "It has the potential to become one of our biggest office globally. That is our intent and we are hiring many senior executives to be based in the Iskandar office. "Due to its strategic location and well developed development masterplan, it allows us to drive growth in a more accelerated manner," Menon said. With a presence in Iskandar Malaysia, Frost & Sullivan hopes to assume a more integral role with the country, government and industry, and to support its clients in Singapore and the region. The Iskandar office would serve the company’s global operations and offices, providing opportunities for local employees to work on global projects. "Our team in Iskandar has put together some capabilities that will support new products and services to help our clients grow," he added. The company's Iskandar office, which was opened three years ago, currently has five centres of excellence -- consulting centre; innovation centre; Growth, Innovation & Leadership (GIL) University, financial centre and digital media centre. Frost & Sullivan currently serves clients in the ICT, automotive, energy, healthcare, logistics, environment, business and financial, aerospace and defense, chemicals and food sectors, among others. Menon also encouraged more companies to consider expanding their businesses in Iskandar Malaysia and become part of the ecosystem and play a part in Malaysia’s growth in the next five to 10 years. On Thursday, Iskandar Regional Development Authority Chief Executive Ismail Ibrahim said Frost & Sullivan's US$163 million (RM595 million) investment in Iskandar Malaysia was an example of a global company creating high-value jobs. Since commencing operations in Iskandar Malaysia, Ismail said the company has hired 61 per cent Johoreans and 15 per cent are Malaysians returnees from abroad, signalling that Iskandar Malaysia continuously attracted talents to support future development of the economic corridor. -- BERNAMA