KL draws RM800mil, 27 global companies set up regional HQ

Malaysia is competing with Singapore and Hong Kong for global companies to set up their headquarters here.

KUALA LUMPUR: InvestKL has managed to get 27 global companies to set up their regional headquarters in the Greater Kuala Lumpur area, with total investment so far at RM800mil, sources said.

They have also created over 2,200 new jobs over the past two years, of which 80% are held by Malaysians.

InvestKL Malaysia is an agency set up to woo 100 of the world’s largest multinational companies (MNCs) listed on Fortune 500 or Forbes Global 2000 to invest in Greater KL by 2020. A Government entity set up under the Economic Transformation Programme, it has been in operation since August 2011.

Some of the big names among the 27 companies include oil and gas player Schlumberger, Vale, IBM, Darden, Cargill, Naton, Colas Rail, Linde and Rentokil.

The bulk of investments from the 27 companies comprise new investments, although some existing global companies that have been in the country for a while have also set up new businesses.

One such case is IBM, which has set up a new global delivery centre in Greater KL. Similarly, Vale, which has a plant in Perak, has also set up a new shared services centre in Kuala Lumpur.

By the middle of this year, sources said, the agency expects to add five more big names to the league, bringing the cumulative investment figure to RM1bil, and adding another 500 new jobs.

The agency is in talks with several MNCs from the US, Europe and Japan to make Kuala Lumpur their business hub.

Malaysia is competing with Singapore and Hong Kong for global companies to set up their headquarters here.

Although both Singapore and Hong Kong are far ahead, InvestKL has been set up to “promote Greater KL as a choice destination for regional headquarters, as there is ready talent, a stable economic environment, and the cost of doing business here is fair versus the other two cities”.

According to reports, Singapore remains the top choice for global MNCs in the Asia Pacific region to house their regional headquarters.

It attracted 46% of all the companies coming into the region in 2011, followed by Hong Kong with 25%, China 11%, Malaysia 8%, Thailand 4% and others 6%.