MALAYSIA STILL AN ATTRACTIVE US FDI DESTINATION, SAYS ENVOY

Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is still an attractive
destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) from the United States, said the
US Ambassador to Malaysia James R.Keith.

He also said that the United States was Malaysia's top trading partner.

"For the United States, Malaysia is its 16th largest trading partner with
bilateral trade in 2007 amounting to US$46 billion.You can see that this is a
significant sum.

"From January to October last year, Americans invested just short of US$3.2
billion in 141 different projects in Malaysia. The trade relationship between
Malaysia and the United States is therefore an important one," he added.

"As an economy, we remain interested in Malaysia.But the question remains
as to how far and fast we can develop this bilateral relationship in trade.To be
honest, I think much remains in the hands of Malaysia.

"It is about how much more Malaysia can do to attract investment from the
United States and become an even larger trading partner," Keith told Bernama in
an interview here.

He also indicated that there was a lot of unrealised potential to be
achieved in trade for Malaysia with the United States.

"I think the more liberal and open the Malaysian economy becomes, the more
you will see flagship companies from the United States doing business here," he
said.

As an example he cited the automotive sector in which Americans have not
been that active as it was not conducive to outside involvement.

"If this was to change, it might lead to a different situation.The more
Malaysia seeks to open up its market to the outside world, the greater will be
the number of those competing or looking for opportunities in the country," he
added.

He also said that the global economic crisis posed a serious challenge and
President Barack Obama had made it his priority in dealing with it.

"The United States recognises it as an issue that requires international
cooperation to overcome. To bring the situation back to normal, we need to do
everything possible to sustain trade volume among countries and expand it over
time.

"To ensure this happens, we need to turn our back on the temptation for
protectionism," he added.

He also said that the United States would continue to do everything it could
to make the international system more open and more liberal, to increase trade.
-- BERNAMA