Look beyond Iskandar, Singapore firms told

SINGAPORE: Singaporean investors should look beyond Iskandar Malaysia for business opportunities, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.

"Johor has been receiving a lot of attention from Singapore, but the East Coast and corridors in Sabah and Sarawak are still very much under-represented by Singaporeans who could also tap the tourism potential in these areas," he said at a media briefing here after the Malaysia-Singapore Business Forum 2011.

Singapore is Malaysia's third biggest investor in the manufacturing sector with US$6.8 billion (US$1 = RM3.19) investment last year.

The bulk of that is focused in Johor (US$3.1 billion), Selangor (US$1.61 billion) and Penang (US$704 million).

Currently, there are a number of Singaporean service providers in the education and health sectors as well as high-end precision engineering.

During a dialogue session with the 700 participants at the forum, Singapore Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang also reminded Singapore companies to keep abreast of Malaysia's developments and take advantage of the positive changes.

This follows improvements in global rankings for Malaysia with regard to ease of doing business and its competitiveness.

Lim also said one of the areas which businesses in both countries can benefit from is cruise tourism linking destinations from China in the north to the Asean countries.

As for private investments, Mustapa said they have been holding up well.

"Our nine months FDI (foreign direct investment) data will be good and I am confident that it will exceed that of last year's," he said.

Malaysia attracted US$7 billion in FDIs during the first half of the year, which totalled US$9 billion last year.

"Next year, there will be a softening in prospects but with the good growth figures coming out of China and India as well as within Asean, prospects will be quite good," Mustapa added.