By Sherilyn Pang
SHAH ALAM, Dec 15 — Selangor is a key destination for Japanese investments, said the country’s Ambassador Hiroshi Oka today.
He said almost half of Japanese investments in Malaysia are located in the state.
“Selangor is very important for Japan, (this is) where we can find the largest number of Japanese companies, with 600 out 1,500 Japanese companies operating in Selangor.
“We consider the relations with the Selangor state (as) very important,” he said.
Oka was speaking at the fourth session of the virtual Selangor Asean Business Conference 2020 webinar series themed ‘Asean’s Growing Economies: Maintaining Regional Prosperity Amidst Crises’.
It was moderated by Selangor Investment, Industry and Commerce and Small and Medium Enterprise Committee chairman Dato’ Teng Chang Khim.
Other panellists were the Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Andrew John Lech Goledzinowski and Singaporean High Commissioner to Malaysia Vanu Gopala Menon.
The session discussed the current Covid-19 pandemic situation and plans for collaboration between Selangor with Japan, Australia and Singapore.
“The Covid-19 situation in Japan has more or less stabilised. This year has been a challenging year,” Oka said, adding that he hoped the situation of Covid-19 in the country would flatten so that economic activities can resume.
Japan, he said, is also Malaysia’s fourth-largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) with one-third of the investment coming into Malaysia originating from the island country.
Japanese FDI in Malaysia for 2019 rose by 3.1 per cent to RM31.7 billion from RM30.7 billion in 2018, according to the Department of Statistics of Malaysia (DOSM).
