KUALA LUMPUR: Finland’s largest defence company, Patria Oy, plans to set up its base in Malaysia this year, said its local agent.
Stratad Sdn Bhd managing director Adrin Raj said yesterday the company would be sending its representatives to Malaysia to meet the authorities by the end of this month.
“Patria’s operations are similar to DRB-HICOM
’s and they are also involved in the manufacture of military equipment.”
He added that Patria's representatives would be among the delegation of Stratad's clients in Finland to visit Malaysia next month.
Stratad, a privately owned trade consultancy formed one and a half years ago, has been facilitating trade and investment ventures for Finnish companies as well as for Malaysian companies doing business in Finland.
Raj, who was formerly working at the Finnish trade commission office in Malaysia, said the Finnish, added that Patria was among seven of Stratad’s client secured over the years.
On Saturday, a Finnish delegation mainly comprising academicians and businessmen from Kuopio region visited Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s International Business School in Kuala Lumpur for a briefing on the university's MBA programmes.
The delegation would also be visiting the Finland’s embassy, Nokia headquarters in Malaysia and the Malaysia Industrial Development Authority (Mida).
According to Raj, Stratad would be bringing in the third Finnish delegation to Malaysia in early February.
The trade visits are aimed at helping Finnish companies to explore business opportunities in the Malaysian market, particularly in the information technology, power generation and pulp and paper industries.
He said Stratad's operations centred around providing information on the local businesses and assisting in forging business ties between Malaysian and Finnish companies.
“The Scandinavians need a local consultancy to impart knowledge on the local business culture and handle a number of things which foreign trade centres are unable to do due to political constraints,” he said.
Out of 40 Finnish companies operating in Malaysia, seven of them are Stratad's clients,
Meanwhile, Raj said due to its success with the Finnish companies, Stratad planned to expand its operations to cover other European Union countries by this year.
“Our focus right now is on Sweden, Denmark and Holland,'' he added.
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