Five Key Thai Investors Keen To Invest In Malaysia

By Jamaluddin Muhammad BANGKOK (Thailand), June 1 (Bernama) -- Five key Thai investors are interested to invest in Malaysia, Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said today. Mustapa, who met them on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on East Asia here Friday, said the investors were major players in departmental store, realty estate, petrochemical, consumer products and food. He said the move was made possible when a Malaysian bank operating here, CIMB Thai, managed to draw their attention to investing in Malaysia as they knew local major industry players very well. "It is good to have a Malaysian bank operating in this country as it did not focus on its business only but also played an important role in attracting foreign investments into Malaysia," he said. Mustapa said investment between Thailand and Malaysia was imbalance at the moment. "For an average US$2.5 (RM8) we invested in Thailand, they invested US$0.31 (RM1) in Malaysia," he said. According to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry data, Malaysian businessmen had invested US$482.5 million (about RM1.4 billion) in this country while Thai businessmen invested US$76.2 million (about RM228 million) as of last year. He said total trade between the two countries in the first quarter of this year amounted to RM18.9 billion with Malaysian exports totalling RM10.05 billion while imports from Thailand RM8.88 billion. (US$1 = RM3.18) -- BERNAMA