KOTA KINABALU: Argentina is keen to identify business investment opportunities in Malaysia, particularly Sabah, due to the stability and business friendliness of the State government.
This was revealed in a dialogue session between the Ambassador of the Argentine Republic in Malaysia, Maria Isabel Rendon, and Sabah United Chinese Chambers of Commerce (SUCCC) at its headquarters in Wisma Pendidikan here, Monday.
SUCCC President Datuk Seri Gan Sau Wah also expressed his hopes that the meeting would benefit the State in terms of the agriculture sector.
“Argentina is well known for its agricultural field and we thought that it would be a good idea that we have Argentine businessmen coming into Sabah to invest as the State is rich with various natural resources and has a friendly as well as prosperous population,” he said.
Rendon also said that the meeting would allow them to identify the possibilities of business investment opportunities between both countries.
“It is not easy but we hope that through this meeting we can identify the possibilities,” she said.
According to the Argentinian Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission, Minister Marcos A. Bednarski, they are also keen in learning the new regulations involving the import licence for products from Argentina into Malaysia.
“It is also important for us to build direct network with the businessmen involved in the trade as well as the new products that we could import from Malaysia particularly Sabah,” he said.
“We do have industrial exports from the manufacturing sector but not as much as compared to our agricultural products,” she said, adding that Malaysia on the other hand, would export optical as well as electrical instruments.
The meeting also saw three SUCCC representatives namely Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers (Shareda) President Datuk Francis Goh, Palm Oil Industrial Cluster Adviser Dr. Lee Ming Tong and SUCCC Commerce and Industry Working Committee Head Louis Liew making brief presentations on certain sectors of the State’s economy.
“Property development had contributed RM7.56 billion to the State’s income in 2013. We forecast that the sector this year will contribute about RM9.5 billion to the State’s income.
“Tourism had contributed RM5.6 billion to the State’s income in 2013, however, the industry faced threats in 2014 due to the missing flight MH370 affecting the incoming of Chinese tourists into the State,” he said.
Therefore, he said he hoped that there will be more Argentine tourists visiting the State especially for the beautiful and unique flora and fauna that Sabah has to offer to all tourists.
“However, there is a lack of hotels in the State with only nine five-star hotels and 14 four-star hotels,” he said adding that they expected about 6, 000 hotel rooms to be completed in the State and there are currently 1, 817 hotel rooms in the State.
“I also hope that we will be able to get more Argentinians to visit Sabah as well as to apply for the ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ (MM2H) programme,” he said.
He said that based on the data given by the Immigration Department, there are less than 100 people who applied for the MM2H programme despite the fact that people prefer to purchase properties in Malaysia due to its cheaper price.
The meeting also saw Lee briefing Rendon and Bednarski about the agriculture and oil palm industry in Sabah and Liew briefing them about the State’s tourism and Sabah Development Corridor.
