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| Malaysia expects to receive over RM9 billion worth of investments from the GCC |
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Oil flush Arab countries are focusing their investments away from the West due to the September 2001 attacks.
The six-member GCC countries are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Oman accounting 29 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves and a fifth of the world's proven gas reserves.
Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (Mida) director general Datuk Jalilah Baba said between 1980 and May this year, the country received RM4.5 billion worth of Gulf investments mainly in the manufacturing of basic metal products.
"We normally don't give targets but based on some of the projects already in the pipeline, I'm quite confident that the amount of investment will be much bigger than RM4.5 billion. It could be more than double.
"I can't reveal the projects as we might not get them but most of them will be in the oil and gas sector and its downstream activities, finance and halal projects," Jalilah told reporters at Mida headquarters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
She had earlier co-launched the Federation of Gulf Cooperation Council Chambers new economic centre in Malaysia to bolster bilateral trade between the GCC and the Association of South-East Asia (Asean).
The Gulf Cooperation Council Chambers is the association which represents all federations and chambers of commerce of the six- member Arab Gulf States. It has also set up similar centres in Canada and Sudan.
The centre will be known as GCC-Asean Economic Centre and will be located at the Mida headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
Centre chairman and GCC International Trade Centre Hamad Ali Safran said the centre will be the gateway for more business and economic activities between the GCC and Asean.
"The centre aims to promote bilateral trade between governments and the private sector especially in oil and gas, banking and finance, halal food and agriculture, manufacturing and education," said Hamad.
Jalilah said the centre will also assist budding and existing businessmen who wants to start or expand their businesses in the GCC as well as forge joint ventures with other companies in the Asean region.
The Federation of GCC currently has 760,000 member companies.
GCC companies already operating in Malaysia include Al-Rajhi bank, Kuwait Finance House, Qatar Islamic bank and Gulf Petroleum.
- New Straits Times
Source: AJP
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